High School
by tvfan69
Summary: This isn't a story of everyone has grown apart, some have and some haven't. After all in time everything changes in one way or another and this is a series of connected drabbles about our beloved recess characters, who they've become and who they never stopped being. This is about what high school is, who you are in the beginning and who you've become by the end.
1. Reunions

T.J. Detweiler walked into his freshman Biology class first period on this day, his first day of high school. He searched the room for any his friends from middle school but found none, there were two middle schools in the city and apparently everyone in this class had gone to the other one, that or the private school just outside of town which TJ had heard most kids transferred out of the first chance they got. Anyways that was when the teacher came in.

"Alright guys just sit down anywhere; I'll assign seats later after I take attendance. Also in case it isn't written down on your schedules I'm Mr. Cooper" The teacher introduced.

He looked a little young to be a teacher, maybe only in his mid-twenties; it had to only be his first or second year working. Still maybe a young teacher was just what the class needed, all the way through elementary and middle school it was rare to find a teacher under the age of sixty. Not to mention that if you did get a teacher younger than that it wasn't by much and they were generally pretty mean. Of course they weren't all like that but most were. T.J. was snapped out of his thoughts when Mr. Cooper got to his name quickly on the attendance list

"Theodore Jasper Detweiler" he called

"Here and its T.J. sir" T.J. responded to which his teacher gave a nod and moved onto the next student.

T.J. paid attention during the rest of the roll call, wanting to pick up on as many names as possible. But then as it seemed Mr. Cooper was getting to the end of the list one of the names made T.J. freeze.

"Ashley Spinelli"

His blood ran cold, Spinelli? She had moved away right after sixth grade, granted only to the other side of town but still he hadn't seen her since. How could he have missed her? How could he have looked all around this room and not noticed her?

"Here"

T.J. whirled his head in the direction of the voice and located the girl it belonged to. It was a girl who he had seen earlier but didn't think anything of her, but now that he knew who she was he wondered why he hadn't. Sure she looked different then she did the last time he saw her, she was obviously taller and her hair was pulled to the side in one pony tail which hung over her left shoulder. She wore a short sleeved teal shirt and long jeans, also her oversized steel toed boots had been replaced with a pair of black sneakers which seemed to actually fit her. But she still had this look about her, first off T.J. was amazed that he hadn't recognized her by her face but even putting that aside there was still something about her, something he couldn't quite name but whatever it was he just knew that this girl on the other side of the room really was his old friend Spinelli.

* * *

_Oh you have got to be kidding me_

That's what Gretchen Grundler was thinking when she walked into her first period honor's Algebra class only to see that none other than Vince LaSalle was in there. Of all the honor's classes he might have qualified for, of all the classes they could've been put in, they were put into one together. Gretchen noticed when Vince rolled his eyes at the sight of her but she only continued on her way and found a seat, as far away from him as possible. Sure they used to be friends, key word 'used' to. They hadn't spoken since April of seventh grade and neither of them had any intention of making amends. The problem was that each blamed the other for what had happened between them and to anyone who didn't know them the thought of not speaking for a year and a half now over the last five seconds of a basketball game might seem pretty stupid, but it wasn't just the game they were mad about.

The thing was that Gretchen had never been much of an athlete, ever. The most athletic thing she ever accomplished was winning that yo-yo competition back in fourth grade. But the seventh grade team needed one more player to play in the middle school intermural game and since it was just for fun against the eighth graders, Gretchen had allowed Vince to talk her into playing. The problem was that Vince was team captain and since he knew Gretchen's athletic skills weren't exactly great, he kept her away from the ball as much as possible. If on the off chance she did get it she was to pass to another player immediately, she was not allowed to dribble as Vince believed she would lose the ball and she defiantly, absolutely, under any circumstance was not allowed to shoot. But in the last five seconds of the game the seventh grader's needed just one basket to get ahead and win and Gretchen had the ball. Despite Vince screaming at her to pass the ball to him she took a shot… and she missed. After the game Vince blamed Gretchen for their loss and shouted that she didn't listen to him. While Gretchen argued that had Vince just given her a chance or actually taught her how to play she wouldn't have missed the shot. In the end Gretchen started giving Vince the silent treatment and since they had pretty much grown apart already anyways she just never had a reason to stop.

Oh well each of them knew that sooner or later they would be forced to interact again but just because they had to sit in the same class all freshman year they did not have to talk to each other.

* * *

Ashley Spinelli stopped by her locker after Biology to leave her textbook from her first class in there and was about to shut the door when someone appeared next her.

"Hey you're in Biology with me right?" The boy asked a little nervously

"And you fallowed me to my locker" Ashley replied in a voice that sounded as if she was confused by it. Of course she wasn't, if it was a random stranger then she would be but she knew this guy, they used to be friends and secretly she was happy to see that he wasn't ignoring her when he easily could.

However judging by his face after her reply he didn't really get that she was just messing with him so she gave him a smile.

"It's good to see you Teej" she said which came as a relief to T.J., for a split second he thought she didn't remember him.

"You to Spinelli" he said

"I actually go by Ashley now" Spinelli said a bit awkwardly, she never meant to stop going by her last name but when she moved and there weren't any annoying Ashley's and a few teachers for some reason couldn't pronounce her last name it just didn't stick.

T.J. on the other hand was taken by surprise upon hearing that but then again she hadn't told Mr. Cooper to call her by her last name so he nodded.

"Ok Ashley got it" T.J. said and with that the bell for the next class rang and each of them rushed off in a separate direction.


	2. Trouble with friends

Two days after the drama club held their auditions for the school play the cast list was posted outside of the auditorium, and Mikey Blumberg was one of the first ones there after school to check for his name. Much to his excitement he found he was listed as a member of the cast, with a role that although small had a few lines and appeared in most scenes. His joy however was short lived as Vanessa Lankrift came up next to him. He knew her from middle school although he didn't know her very well, she hardly ever said anything. He was surprised when she joined the drama club and even more surprised when he was actually able to hear her during her audition. Anyways she took one look at the cast list and walked away, no sign of any type of emotion. Mikey checked it again, her name was listed.

"Vanessa you made it" he called after her thinking she may have accidently skipped over her name and thought she didn't make it.

"I know" she said back stopping to answer him and then continuing on her way.

Confused Mikey hurried to catch up with her

"What's the matter Vanessa? Aren't you happy that you made it?" He questioned, since it was the end of school it was difficult not to lose her in the crowd of people leaving.

"Yeah now I've got to get to my bus" she said clearly trying to just get away from the boy who in her mind was poking his head too far into her business.

So she left Mikey standing there and as she walked away she couldn't help but begin grumbling to herself.

"You know just because I don't get all excited over it doesn't mean some guy who's never said more than two words to me needs to be concerned. I mean really its understudy I don't see what there is to jump up and down about" she muttered as she walked down the sidewalk of the school in order to get to her bus.

Of course Vanessa was happy she hadn't been cut completely from the drama club, she would take anything she could get. But she had her reasons for her annoyance with the cast list and Mikey Blumberg had no business questioning it.

* * *

Ashley was walking home from school with her friends Monica and Joslyn as she did every day, although aside from their houses all being in the same general direction and all being too close to the school for a bus she sometimes wondered why she walked with these girls. They had been friends since seventh grade and were the only friends Ashley had made during middle school, sure she talked to other people but Monica and Joslyn were the only ones who she ever considered friends, but sometimes it really seemed like they only tolerated her. Anyways today the two were discussing Joslyn's softball tryouts tomorrow and Monica was complaining about how little time she had to do her homework now that she was a cheerleader.

"I was thinking of trying out for the wrestling team" Ashley put in and the two other girls nearly stopped.

"You would die" Monica said flatly which of course made her friend's blood boil

"I would not" Ashley said angrily, friend or not a younger version of herself would've proved the girl wrong right then and there but she knew better than that now. She was mad but she knew better than to express it with her fists.

"Ok first you're like five foot two and second all the guys on that are like six feet tall. Yeah you would die" Joslyn said to which Ashley growled since she knew she would do just fine but said nothing else.

* * *

The second week of rehearsal's and Mikey was sitting in the auditorium waiting until he needed to be up on stage. He looked around and noticed that Vanessa was among the few other people sitting around and suddenly he felt bad for her. As an understudy she was required to attend all rehearsals but unless someone was absent she never did anything. Knowing she wasn't going anywhere and seeing that as usual she was sitting all alone he decided to go and try to talk to her.

"Hey what are you doing?" Mikey asked in a friendly voice seeing that she was focused entirely on whatever it was she was writing in her notebook.

In fact Vanessa was so focused that she hadn't even noticed Mikey sit down behind her until he said something and when he did her head snapped up and she abruptly shut the notebook before quickly shoving it into her backpack.

"Nothing" she replied in a startled and panicked voice, the voice of someone who was hiding something.

She turned her head to look at Mikey as she placed a strand of her long dark hair behind her ear

"It's nothing" she said again, this time in a much more calm voice.

A moment of silence passed between the two, Mikey trying to think of what to say since whatever was in that notebook was obviously private, and Vanessa just waiting out the silence in order to get Mikey to go away.

"So why aren't you over there with the others?" Mikey inquired gesturing over to a group of other kids who were all hanging out.

"Not really friends with them" Vanessa answered with a shrug

"What about you?" She asked truly curious. She had worked stage crew in the drama club all through middle school while Mikey was always one of the actors and she knew that he always had friends, so why he was reduced to talking to her was something she didn't understand.

"Well I sat alone to do some homework and then when I finished I saw they were all over there and you were all alone over here" he said.

Vanessa tried to think of something to say. She was a shy person. She was usually alone, it's just her nature. Sure people had tried to be nice to her before but Mikey was defiantly the first person to admit that he was talking to her out of pity.

"Whose backpack is that?" Mikey asked just now noticing the backpack in the seat next to Vanessa when her own backpack was on the ground at her feet.

"Becky's" Vanessa said gesturing to the stage with her head.

Becky wasn't the star of the play but she was a member of the main cast, not to mention Vanessa's twin sister. Now that Mikey thought about it Vanessa and Becky were total opposites and most people well… most people found Becky very likable and Vanessa, Vanessa seemed to just hang out in the background. Upon realizing this Mikey, being as intuitive as he sometimes can be, thought that maybe this was the reason Vanessa was shy, she lived in her sister's shadow.

"Did it hurt you when Becky got a main part?" Mikey asked just being himself, just wanting to help other people.

Vanessa on the other hand was surprised by the question, couldn't Mikey just be like everybody else in the world and leave her alone? But she thought of an answer, a totally honest one and it was sure to get him to go away.

"Mikey I've spent every summer since I was nine at an acting camp. So it hurt when I auditioned all through middle school and got stuck on stage crew each time. When my sister who has never done any kind of acting ever in her lifetime got a real part and I got understudy that didn't hurt. No that felt like someone ripped my heart out, sharpened it and then stabbed me with it" she answered and judging by Mikey's face it almost looked like he was going to say something but then he got called to the stage.


	3. New beginnings

Vanessa was on her skateboard heading downhill on the half pipe at the old skate park when out of the corner of her eye she saw someone on a bike coming. Upon reaching the top of the ramp she proceeded onto the ledge and came to a stop trying to make out the figure in the distance. At first she assumed it was one of the usual guys, who actually weren't all that usual. They were just a couple of guys who came here every so often, but nowhere near as often as she did. No this place on the edge of town was pretty much abandoned, not to mention hidden far behind some abandoned factory. When she could see enough of the person to see that it clearly wasn't one of her friends she thought maybe it was a kid looking for something to do but she quickly abandoned that idea, this person was far too big to be younger than a teenager. Finally he came close enough to be identified and Vanessa rolled her eyes

"What is he doing here?" She muttered under her breath but headed down the ladder to meet Mikey at the bottom.

"Hey" she greeted him in a friendly way as though she didn't know he had somehow tracked her here. Normally she wouldn't accuse anyone of tracking somebody, especially her, when there was probably a normal explanation but she's not an idiot (contrary to what most teachers think) and knows Mikey doesn't usually come here and has been trying to talk to her for a while now.

"Hey about what I said the other day, I didn't mean to upset you" Mikey began not really knowing how to apologize for something he really wasn't sorry for saying. But at the same time he was sorry because he knows Vanessa is a very closed off person and he should've known she didn't want to tell him about anything.

"It's cool, sorry I was kind of violent with my answer" Vanessa said back and Mikey smiled

"Want to go down to Kelso's?" He asked and Vanessa gave him a small but sweet smile as she unbuckled her helmet and picked up her skateboard

"Sure" she answered.

* * *

When the term changed and the lunch schedules were flipped around Ashely found that she no longer had lunch with Monica and Joslyn.

_Great now I'm going to have to eat by myself _she thought silently to herself as she headed into the cafeteria on that first day of the new schedule.

She glanced around at the tables close to the entrance, the tables occupied by the loners. Only one person sat at each of the first few tables, the kids who either wanted to be alone or like Ashley had no choice in the matter, it was hard to tell which circumstance each one was under. There weren't many of them and one would think that they had stuff in common with each other but they rarely spoke, each one just sat there eating in silence. Ashley tried to find an empty place to sit among them, she hated spending lunch alone but she had no choice and was about to sit down somewhere when she heard her name

"Hey Spinelli" the voice exclaimed and Ashley whirled her head to see T.J. waving to her from a few tables away.

Relieved to see him she went over to his table and it amused her how he was unable to get used to calling her Ashley, although she never corrected him on it after that first time. She sat down in the empty seat next to T.J.

"Thanks" she said with a smile.

"Hey Spinelli, long time no see" one of the guys at the table said, only then did Spinelli notice that it was Vince.

He didn't look much different than he had at the end of sixth grade, he had grown a few inches and now wore a blue jersey instead of his old green one but aside from that he pretty much looked the same.

"I know it's good to see you" she said in response not really knowing what else to say. After that T.J. introduced her to the rest of the guys at the table; Patrick, Nate, Gabe and Collin.

Patrick was the tallest of them all and he seemed to be pretty muscular but that didn't surprise Spinelli, she knew he was on the football team.

Nate was kind of a short kid and the bangs of his blond hair hung down onto his face as he was bent over a handheld video game.

Gabe seemed like a nice and relatively normal guy like T.J. and said hi when T.J. introduced her.

Collin was the last and he was a scrawny kid with dark brown hair and big brown eyes but he seemed nice enough.

As lunch went on Spinelli noticed that it was different from lunch with Monica and Joslyn, she wasn't just sitting there hoping they might say something that interested her and for the most part being ignored. These guys she could actually talk to, they didn't yell at her for talking with her mouth full like Monica did and they didn't roll their eyes at her for laughing at in inappropriate joke like Joslyn did. For once she felt like she truly was among friends and wasn't just being put up with. Yes for Spinelli lunch was actually a good time that term and when the term changed again she not only had the same lunch as Monica and Joslyn but also as most of the guys, she chose to eat with the guys.

* * *

Gretchen still hated Vince, no mistake could be made there, but she still couldn't help but feel sorry for her former friend. How Vince had managed to fake his way into an honors Algebra class she didn't know but that had to be what he had done. She knew he didn't understand the work, she could see it in his eyes. Every so often she would see one of his papers in the classroom's recycling bin, almost always a failing grade. At first she found his struggle slightly amusing, payback for never giving her a chance. But it didn't take long for the pity to set in. She began volunteering when their teacher asked for someone to hand back papers, she wanted to see how he did. Most of the grades she saw of his were in the high forties or low fifties and every so often he just barely passed. By the time finals rolled around she knew that Vince was just barely scrapping by if he was even passing and if he failed the final, he would fail the class.

* * *

Vince was at his locker one day on the week before finals just after school when someone came up next to him.

"I can help you if you want" the girl offered and Vince glanced up only to find that it was Gretchen Grundler of all people.

"Help me what, lose my next game?" He asked mockingly with a scoff but Gretchen only rolled her eyes

"No with Algebra" she clarified causing Vince to laugh

"Yeah right, what's the catch?" He asked slightly intrigued by her offer. He didn't question how she knew he was about to fail, it was no secret that he was bad. He knew she had to have a price but for her help, it just might be worth it.

"No catch" she said and he nearly laughed but saw that she was serious

"Wait are you serious?" He had to ask, his old friend nodded.

"Meet me at the library at six" she said before leaving.


	4. Moving on

Vince went to the library that evening, although he still had his doubts about Gretchen's sincerity. If she hadn't spoken to him in two years why would she suddenly want to help him? Surely having been friends all through elementary hadn't impacted this, none of what happened back then mattered anymore. But once inside the library he made his way to the teen section where the library kept most of its magazines, young adult novels and a few tables for kids to use for study sessions. Sure enough Gretchen was there sitting at a table waiting for him and after just a moment's hesitation he sat down in the seat across from her.

"You ready to start?" Gretchen asked more than ready to begin the work but Vince looked at her suspiciously.

"Why are you doing this?" He questioned in a skeptical tone of voice, he knew that Gretchen was more than capable of holding a grudge if she wanted to and when it came to him, she wanted to.

"Because I don't want to see my old friend fail" Gretchen answered honestly. So this was because they used to be friends.

"Thought you would get some enjoyment out of it, I thought you liked watching me fail" Vince mocked and he saw the anger as it appeared in her eyes

"Look do you want my help or not?" Gretchen asked willing to walk out of there if he said no. Here she was swallowing her pride and putting that game out of her mind in order to help Vince and all he was doing was mocking her and making it as hard as possible for her to do this.

"You're not going to teach me the wrong things?" Vince asked her but she gave him an appalled look.

"Of course not!" Gretchen exclaimed hating that he could even think that. Even though they hated each other she could never do that to him or to anyone for that matter, if she wanted to ensure that he failed then she would've just let him keep doing whatever it is that he's been doing all year.

* * *

Dress rehearsal. Mikey always loved this last night before the play, the excitement that could only be surpassed by the excitement of opening night. But with no part his friend Vanessa had been sent back to stage crew. Of course she acted like it was no big deal, like she didn't care. Mrs. Heart, the director, had her adjusting ceiling lights which Vanessa claimed was more fun than any part she had ever gotten but that was only because she got to climb up into the ceiling every so often in order to do it. Finally at the end of dress rehearsal it was late, almost nine thirty, and Mikey waited for Vanessa to be through with her work of putting away everything that had been left out.

"Hey what are you still doing here?" She asked when she saw him waiting for her by the auditorium door.

"My mom's here to get me, do you need a ride home?" He asked but she only giggled a little

"No my mom had to come get Becky anyways so she's waiting for me" Vanessa answered and Mikey nodded. Of course he knew Vanessa's own mother was here to pick her up, and despite the way she made it sound he knew that she would've been there even if Becky wasn't in the show.

"I'm sorry you didn't end up with a part" Mikey said as they left together but Vanessa shrugged

"Don't be, I'll make it next year" she said as they went their separate ways and for once she actually believed that.

She had said that to herself every year for the last few years but never making it combined with her natural personality made her think that maybe backstage was where she belonged; only when Mikey came along did she start to see that she didn't have to live her life going unnoticed. Mikey didn't know it but in one year he showed her that she didn't have to live behind the scenes, he had nothing against who she was but he still showed her who she could be. Thanks to Mikey she truly believed that she would make it next year because now she knew that she was so much more than just a shadow.

* * *

The day of the algebra exam soon rolled around. Gretchen and Vince had been studying together all week mostly to prepare Vince for it; Gretchen could have easily gone into test day without studying at all and still pulled off at least an A-. Vince however was still nervous but upon receiving the test he found that he understood what most of the questions were asking, which to him was a miracle since all year he's failed to grasp any of the methods of Algebra. Finally when the last student finished the test and the kids were allowed to talk Gretchen moved herself to the empty seat in front of Vince and sat facing him.

"So how do you think you did?" She asked praying their studying had paid off

"I think I might have just barely passed" Vince answered so unsure of himself; no matter how good he thought he did he knew his grade would be at least ten points lower, there was no way he could've learned enough to pass in one week.

"Thanks by the way" he said

"Oh you're welcome" Gretchen said to her old friend awkwardly.

In the past week the ice between them had broken gradually in a way that was more like melting but suddenly with the test over it felt as if it had frozen again, freezing them both in this awkward place between who they used to be and who they had become in the other's eyes. Neither one of them would admit it but the last week had actually been kind of nice, at first they were practically at each other's throats but at some point the two began to actually enjoy each other's company in the library every night. Finally the bell rang and the two picked up their stuff to leave

"Well see you around Gretch, I owe you one" Vince said as he left before her and secretly Gretchen smiled a small smile to herself.

_Gretch_

The nickname which once meant nothing to her now made her heart skip a beat, obviously she didn't have any feelings for Vince LaSalle, just the thought of it made her crinkle her nose in disgust. But he had called her something she hadn't heard in a long time from him, something she hadn't heard since they were friends. So as Gretchen made her way down the hallway to her next class she found herself filled with an odd sense of joy and hope, maybe it was time she let go of the past.


	5. July 4th

"I look fine mom" Ashley argued with a sigh as she sat in the back seat of the car as she and her parents drove halfway across town.

They were going to a fourth of July party at the house of Taylor Jamison's family, Joey's fiancée. Ashley couldn't understand why her mother cared so much about how she looked; they had met these people before. Well for the most part anyways, they had met Taylor's parents but that was it, she still had a little brother whom Ashley was yet to meet and they had never met her extended family but still she really did look ok. She was wearing simple jean shorts and a plain red tank top with her hair pulled back. Ashley supposed that her mother's concern came from her son's recent engagement and her daughter's less than beautiful appearance. She was no fool, her mother hadn't exactly noticed her tomboy personality until maybe the end of third grade if not later than that, when she did notice however she had hoped it would be just a phase. But now that her daughter was almost fifteen she realized that she was no perfect little doll and she hated it. It wasn't that she was embarrassed by Ashley's appearance; it was just that she didn't want Taylor's family remembering Ashley as being so rough around the edges.

* * *

Vince walked around the side of the building throwing his basketball up and down in a bored manner. The building was for this of club his dad belonged to and every year they had a fourth of July party for members and their families, it wasn't as fun as one might think. Oh sure when Vince was younger it was fun, other member's brought their kids and his dad's friend Manny was always giving the kids stickers and little junk toys but as the years went on and Vince grew up so did those other kids and every year less of them came, they all found something to occupy themselves and use as an excuse not to come here. Just then Vince noticed the old shed which sat almost completely over grown by bushes in the backyard of the place. It wasn't much, just a small wooden shed that was falling apart at the seams but what Vince noticed about it was that it's normally closed door was open.

"Hello?" Vince asked as he cautiously stepped inside.

The one room shed was tiny, cramped and cluttered. It was hot and stuffy and was overrun by dust, bugs and a ton of old junk. Upon entering Vince found himself face to face with a girl his own age

"Ah!" she exclaimed with a jump, apparently he had startled her.

Vince knew her, or knew of her anyways. He had seen her around here through the years; apparently like him she was yet to find someplace better to be on the fourth of July.

"Sorry you scared me" she said apologizing for the frightened yelp that had come out of her a moment ago.

"So what are you doing?" Vince asked, this shed used to fascinate all of the children when they were little but they were in high school now, she couldn't seriously still be obsessed with discovering the so called mysteries they once believed this shed held.

The girl turned back to rummaging through the baskets of dust covered junk

"Looking for something to do" she answered and Vince nodded so began looking around himself.

"You're Becky right?" Vince asked, he was so embarrassed to have to ask but he knew that this girl was a twin and since he only saw her and her sister a few times a year, if at all, he didn't really know which one was which.

"No Vanessa actually" she said with a giggle

"Oh sorry I-" Vince began but he was cut off

"It's ok it's happened enough times before" she said sort of in a joking voice as they continued to search for something to do.

* * *

Upon arriving at the home of Taylor's parents the Spinelli's joined the party quickly. They seemed to fit in well with Taylor's relatives which was a good thing. Ashley stayed near her mom almost the way a young child would, she just didn't know where to go. She didn't know these people aside from Taylor and her parents, sure she knew Joey and did hang around with him for a while but eventually she wandered away from him to get a soda and then found herself once again in the same room as her mother. So she was standing there drinking her soda when Taylor came and found her

"There you are, come on I want you to meet my brother" the sometimes overly enthusiastic girl said pulling at Ashley's wrist before she could protest.

Ashley fallowed Taylor out of the house and into the backyard where she was led to a boy her own age sitting at a picnic table with some other people, probably cousins.

_Oh you have got to be kidding me_

That's what went through Ashley's head when she saw the boy. She knew who he was; she had seen him around school but hadn't talked to him. Oh but she knew him.

"Spinelli!" The boy exclaimed in shock but then his look of surprise turned to a look of realization.

"Joey Spinelli. Duh! Why did not I realize it before?" he said seeming to be talking to himself.

"Ashley this is my brother Menlo" Taylor introduced apparently ignorant of her brother's recognition of the girl his sister had brought over.

"Yeah we know each other from school" Ashley said as nicely as she possibly could, she liked Taylor but seriously! She had to be related to Menlo?

"Oh I should've known" Taylor said then she left, the two teenagers just staring at each other in surprise.

"So it's Ashley now?" Menlo asked after a moment of awkward silence between the two but Ashley only shrugged.

"I don't really care" she answered and Menlo nodded, they were both still wrapping their heads around this.

"Well if you don't mind I think I will call you Ashley since we're going to become family now" Menlo said and Ashley only nodded

_Who talks like that? Yeah Joey's marrying his sister but even if that does make us family why does he have to say it out loud? Who says stuff like that out loud? _Ashley thought.

Finally one of Menlo's cousins came and started talking to him so Ashley left the table, yes it could be worse but still why did it have to be Menlo?

* * *

It all happened so fast. Gretchen was sitting on the lawn of her house with her cousins, Rachel who was two years older than her and Anabelle who was seven. They were watching as their fathers stood in the street lighting the fuses of fireworks. One after another flashes of red and blue and green lit up the sky over the house, until one went wrong.

It was only a small one thank goodness but her Uncle Jim must have set it up wrong and as a result it came flying right at the three girls.

"DUCK!" Rachel exclaimed as the three of them it the ground.

The soaring rocket flew over them just as they got down and died upon crashing into the side of the house behind them and for a moment Gretchen let out a sigh of relief, for a moment.

"GAH!" Her cousin's cry was short and fast, Gretchen almost didn't hear it. At first nobody realized that Rachel's cry had been out of pain but now as they all saw that she was biting her lip and holding her right shoulder while a few tears began to form in her eyes it was clear, she had been hit.

Worried Gretchen's father along with Rachel's rushed over to the girls but Rachel pushed them away once they went for her.

"I'm fine! I'm fine!" She insisted as Gretchen tried to hold Anabelle back but the little girl soon wormed her way out of her cousin's arms and went for her sister.

"I'm fine, it barely got me" Rachel continued as she got to her feet and removed her hand from the wound.

She may have been right; it wasn't nearly as bad as it could have been. There was gash on her shoulder where the trail of fire had cut through but she wasn't bleeding and although the burn on her skin was clearly second degree she wiped away the tears in her eyes and went inside for a bandage. Gretchen let out a breath she didn't realize she was holding and just when her father and Uncle were going to put away the rest of the fireworks Rachel came running back, bandage in hand.

"Did I miss the rest?" She questioned

Gretchen rolled her eyes, like they were seriously going to shoot off more explosives after that.

"We're done" Uncle Jim said to his oldest daughter simply

"Why?" She asked in a disappointed voice, of course she knew but she wanted to try and convince him not to quit.

So the father and daughter argued for a bit but eventually Rachel gave in and walked away with her cousin and sister.

The three went and sat on the old swing set in the backyard and Gretchen couldn't help but glance at her cousin as she sat down on a swing without a word and wrapped the bandage around her shoulder, doing a relatively poor job of it.

"Do you want some help?" Gretchen offered hesitantly

"I got it" Rachel replied before using her teeth to pull the bandage tight then finished.


	6. Familiar faces

Gus had to admit that he was a little nervous for the first day of sophomore year. Ok a lot nervous. Here he was at another new school for what the sixth time in his life? After considering it for a moment Gus nodded to himself

_Yeah sixth_

Of course he had been in this school district once before back in fourth and half of fifth grade. Third Street had been one of the better schools he went to; he had made some pretty good friends there. Maybe that was why he was so nervous today; he knew they were here but he also knew that they probably didn't remember him. So it was a fresh start all over again but that's ok, after all that's what it always is for Gus.

* * *

"Oops that was your locker wasn't it?" T.J. sheepishly asked the girl next to him. He had meant to shut his locker but by mistake he had pushed the door of the locker next to his closed.

"It's ok it's not like I can't get back in" she said as she dialed her combination for the second time that morning.

"Sorry" T.J. apologized awkwardly rubbing the back of his neck. Just then he realized that him and this girl had been locker neighbors all last year and would remain so all throughout high school yet he had never once spoken to her.

"I'm T.J. by the way" he said as he finally closed his own locker and she grabbed a textbook from the inside of hers.

"Stephanie" she introduced shutting her locker.

* * *

Upon receiving his schedule in homeroom Vince stared at it in disbelief.

_No, no it can't be! This has got to be a joke! God no_

So all first period he hadn't paid any attention to his history teacher, which was fine since being the first day all he was doing was giving an overview on what the class would be. Instead Vince had been thinking about the name of his second period English teacher, he had to be wrong. He just had to. It had to be a coincidence, a different teacher with the same name. That had to be it. Vince was so dreading his next class that the bell to end this first period seemed to ring sooner and louder than it should have. So Vince grabbed his backpack and hurried to his next class, needing to see that he was wrong. But much to his disappointment when he got there he found the teacher standing outside the door of her room was just who he had feared,

Ms. Finster.

* * *

"Spinelli?" Mikey asked upon seeing his old friend was in his poetry class

"Hey Mikey, How have you been?" She asked as he took the empty seat next to her.

_Add him to the list of people once again calling me by my last name_ Spinelli thought to herself.

She didn't mind it of course, in fact she loved it. Ever since meeting T.J.'s friends and hanging out with them Spinelli noticed that she had begun reverting back to her old ways and was no longer the quiet and admittedly shy girl she had become during middle school, the girl she hated being. She hadn't meant to become like that but she wasn't able to help it, it's who she is. The only reason she was able to make friends in elementary school was because she knew T.J. from the neighborhood and had stuck around him, he was outgoing and good at making friends but she was not. So when she was taken away from him and sent into a new school on her own, well that didn't go well.

"I'm good, what about you?" Mikey answered and then inquired

"Fine" Spinelli responded with a shrug.

"I didn't know you liked poetry" Mikey said to her surprised that out of all the classes he could have found her in it ended up being this one.

Spinelli only shrugged again "not really but it's easy enough" she replied.

Spinelli was being careful to take the easiest classes she could during high school, she barely got out of middle school. So far that plan was going pretty well, last year she was only a few points short of making honor roll. She had thought about taking an honor's English class this year but she put that out of her mind when Monica told her she wouldn't be able to handle the work and reminded her of how Joslyn thought she could handle an honor's history class freshman year and ended up just barely passing, of course when Monica said this it was during that last few weeks of freshman year and Joslyn was failing her history class, she pulled her grade out of the toilet with the final.

* * *

"Finster's back?" T.J. questioned Vince at lunch after Vince had told them about his English teacher.

"Yeah, I thought she was probably dead by now!" Vince exclaimed; his head hung low.

"Believe me if she was dead I would've told you" Spinelli assured the guys, reminding them that her family and Finster were friends and that she would know if something ever happened to the old witch.

Lunch this term consisted of Spinelli, Vince, T.J., Nate, Collin, Monica and Joslyn. Or it did until Monica saw some of her other friends a few tables away and without a word got up and left.

"Where are you going?" Nate asked with half of his sandwich in his mouth but Monica just kept walking, she didn't like Spinelli's new friends and that was no secret. Still one would think she could've been a little nicer about ditching them.

"Monica?" Joslyn called after her in a hurt voice

"I'm going to sit with Caroline" Monica called back as she made her way to the other table.

With a smile Spinelli let out a small scoff under her breath "good riddance" she muttered loud enough for some of the others to hear, Joslyn gave her a stink eye.

"What?" She asked but Joslyn only rolled her eyes

"Nothing" she muttered.

The table was silent for a minute before Collin spoke up

"Ah who needs her?" He asked rhetorically but Spinelli was so happy that Monica had just walked out of her life that she answered.

"Absolutely no one" she said with a smirk.

Ok even she knew that that may have been a little uncalled for but she said it anyways, and it certainly pushed Joslyn over the edge.

"You know she is still our friend" Joslyn claimed in a very offended voice but Spinelli rolled her eyes.

"Speak for yourself. If you still want something to do with her then that's your problem but I'm done dealing with her" Spinelli argued.

The guys stayed quiet, they wanted to see where this went and if they would lose Joslyn to.

"What do you mean you're done dealing with her?" Joslyn demanded visibly growing angrier by the second. She isn't a violent person but she had zero tolerance for people bad mouthing her friends, even if it was one friend saying it about another.

"I mean I'm sick of listening to her! All she ever does is complain! 'Oh poor me I was up until midnight doing homework last night, my brother didn't do his chores and I got stuck doing them, I sprained my ankle during cheer practice'" Spinelli ranted. She could see Joslyn's blood was boiling but she didn't care. She knew she was right and Monica wasn't here to tell her otherwise.

"Seriously you had a bad concussion last year and didn't complain half as much as she does over spilled milk!" Spinelli continued and her friend seemed to drop her anger.

"Alright, alright you made your point" Joslyn gave in with a grumble as she twirled her plastic fork around in the disgusting cafeteria spaghetti.

She was angry but she knew that Spinelli had a point. Monica does have a habit of endlessly complaining about her pretty much perfect life. What really got Joslyn was about a week ago when Monica was complaining about her parents. _They're so annoying every time my mom leaves the house my dad kisses her goodbye, it's disgusting_. Joslyn had to suppress a scowl just thinking about that conversation, her parents were on the brink of divorce yet Monica felt the need to actually whine about hers being so in love with each other.

"So….that happened" Vince said awkwardly once it seemed that the girls were through fighting.

And so with that lunch continued on.


	7. The fair

"So are you going to the fair tonight?" Mikey asked Vanessa as the two of them walked through the halls of the school.

This week was the state fair and since today was Friday night just about everybody was going.

"Yeah of course I am. What about you?" Vanessa asked her friend in excitement, maybe if she was lucky she could meet up with him, spend her time at the fair with somebody other than her sister.

"Yup I've been waiting all year for the fried dough" Mikey said, his mouth practically watering at the thought of the fair food.

Vanessa giggled as they reached her locker "so do you go on the rides?" She asked Mikey.

"No not really" he answered, regretting it the second he did. He saw the big bright smile on Vanessa's face fall into more of a disappointed look. It had slipped his mind that she was more a dare devil and a big ride person.

He really doesn't like rides; he just does not need to feel that pit in his stomach. But Vanessa did. She loved that feeling of her heart dropping into her stomach and her throat becoming uncomfortably dry in a matter of seconds from screaming. To Mikey it was a feeling of certain death but to Vanessa it was what freedom tasted like, true freedom. With the wind blowing through her hair at eighty miles per hour and because Becky didn't like rides she was always alone.

Most children experience their first glance of freedom when they first learn to walk or ride a bike or on their very first day of school but that was the price Vanessa and Becky paid for being twins; they always did those things together. And as far as Vanessa was concerned Becky was always better. She picked up on everything so much faster than Vanessa did so when she became a child who hated rides that became Vanessa's freedom. Of course sometimes the price of being alone was worse than the one of being Becky's sister, she faced all of her fears by herself. She was that kid who got stuck in a cart with random strangers and occasionally had to bite back her screams and close her eyes to keep them from thinking she was a scared little kid, of course she hadn't done that since she was ten. Not to mention she never got to go to Disneyworld because her parents promised to take her and Becky when they were older, well by the time they reached the age their parents had deemed as older Becky hated any sort of amusement park ride and convinced her parents that she would be bored out of her mind, no matter how much Vanessa tried to tell her there was more to the parks than rides. Instead Becky had won that battle and their parents claimed that it's not worth it to spend the money to go and have one of the girls be bored yet it was just plain unfair to only take one, Vanessa tried not think about that argument which she refused to let die.

Just then the bell rang pulling Vanessa out of her thoughts "alright well see you there I guess" she said to Mikey before the two split up to go to their classes.

* * *

T.J. and the guys waited by the front gate of the fair, keeping their eyes on the parking lot for the small blue car which Joslyn's mother was driving. She was dropping the girls off and the guys had been standing there against the fence for almost ten minutes now waiting.

"Man what is taking them so long?" Vince wondered out loud with still no sight of the car

"Eh Spinelli probably started fighting with her mom" T.J. said with a shrug, it's no secret that Spinelli and her mother don't get along and more often than not they begin a screaming match before Spinelli leaves the house.

"Vince is just getting sick of waiting for his girlfriend" Patrick teased

"What? I don't know what you're talking about!" Vince insisted but of course that was a lie.

"Come on Vince everybody knows you've got a thing for Joslyn" Gabe said joining in on the teasing.

"Everybody but Joslyn that is" Nate muttered but Collin gave a smirk

"I think she knows and pretends she doesn't. She doesn't have the heart to break it to Vince that she doesn't like him" Collin mocked to which Vince gave a frown; he liked to believe that maybe Joslyn secretly liked him too.

"She doesn't like any of us. She was Monica's friend before she was ours and Monica left us, it's only a matter of time before she does the same" Nate reminded everyone. He was still a little hurt by Monica just up and leaving them, she had only spoken to Joslyn since the first day of school and they knew that sooner or later Joslyn would fallow her. In fact they were placing bets on when it would happen.

"Hey guys sorry we're late" Spinelli's voice came from just a few feet away and the six boys finally realized that they had been so caught up in their conversation that they had missed Joslyn's mom drop the two off.

Briefly T.J. felt like it was the first day of freshman year again, the first time he saw Spinelli after so long. Obviously this was different; he had seen Spinelli as recently as this afternoon. But tonight she looked different; a good different. She was wearing her usual sneakers and jeans but over her shirt she wore a zipped up leather jacket. It wasn't the one she used to wear, which T.J. still wasn't really sure if that had been hers originally or if it was a hand me down from her brother, but unlike that one this one was clearly a woman's jacket and the sleeves tightly incased her arms instead of hanging loose like they had on her old one. Also her hair was down; T.J. couldn't remember ever seeing her hair down before. It fell over her shoulders and ended just above her waist. Of course he wouldn't say it out loud but he thought she looked quite beautiful with her hair down. Then as they were walking in Vince must have caught him staring at Spinelli

"Looks like I'm not the only one who likes somebody" he teased just loud enough for only the two of them to hear

"Shut up" T.J. muttered hoping Spinelli hadn't heard.

* * *

Despite having only been back in town for a week Gus went to the fair. Sure he went alone but he thought that maybe it would be fun and maybe he could meet up with some friends, if he had any to meet up with. Anyways he went on the swing tower, which went up probably two hundred feet in the air and each swing sat two people. So he was looking for a seat but couldn't find an empty one however he did find one occupied by only one girl who was nervously kicking her feet back and forth waiting for the ride to start.

"Um mind of I sit with you?" Gus asked hoping she wouldn't tell him to get lost.

"Sure come on" the girl said in a friendly voice so Gus hopped onto the swing in the space next to her and lowered the bar.

"You seem nervous" he said just trying to make conversation. He was nervous too in fact he had no idea what had possessed him to get on this ride, he had grown to be less fearful over the past few years after realizing that since he wanted to join the military after graduating high school he would need to get over a lot of his fears, heights included. But still he wasn't sure why he was on this.

The girl shrugged "I've always wanted to go on this but yeah I'm pretty terrified" she confessed and that's when the ride started.

The swings ascended into the air and although Gus's own fears were rising the girl next to him looked like she might throw up. Gus looked at her closely, at first just to see if her face was turning green but when he looked at her, when he really looked at her, he recognized her.

"Gretchen?" He asked wondering why he had. Yes he knew that this was his old friend but she probably didn't remember him. Sure enough she looked at him with a puzzled face.

"I'm sorry do I know you?" She asked as she studied the dirty blond sitting next to her, she was positive she hadn't met him before.

"I'm Gus. Gus Griswald we were sort of friends a long time ago" he explained sheepishly, ok first off it had only been about four and a half years ago that he moved away and that wasn't necessarily a LONG time ago. Plus they weren't sort of friends, they were friends. But he didn't want her to feel bad for not remembering him; he couldn't really blame her if she had forgotten.

"Gus?" She asked in surprise

"It's ok if you don't remember me-" Gus began but he was cut off.

"No it's not that it's just that I didn't recognize you, you look so different" Gretchen said and it was true. For starters the boy who had been nearly half her height the last time she saw him was now taller than her, only an inch or two but taller none the less. Also his hair had darkened over the last few years and was more of a dirtier blond than it had been in elementary school but was still styled in a neat buzz cut. He wasn't wearing glasses anymore, probably had gotten contacts. But one thing that had remained the same was his clothes, he still wore dark green pants although they were now sweatpants and his old shoes had been replaced with brown work boots. He wore a camouflage sweatshirt now but it was still green. Just then the rising swings came to a halt at the top of the tower and began to spin in fast circles. No longer concerned with catching up Gretchen gripped the chain of the swing so hard that her knuckles began to turn white. Why had she let herself do this? As if her fear wasn't bad enough the speed of the ride pulled her to the other side of the swing and as much as she resisted she couldn't keep herself from being squished up against her old friend who held onto his own chain with one hand. The icy feel of the metal chain froze Gretchen's hands and the wind created by the ride didn't help it one bit. Finally she couldn't take it anymore but at the same time she needed to hold onto something.

Gus didn't know if it was the force of intense gravity that Gretchen was giving into or considering how cold the chain was it could've been that but as the two of them screamed way up two hundred feet in the air Gretchen let go of her chain halfway through the ride and wound both her arms around his one arm which he was not using to hold on. At first he almost stopped screaming just to make sense of this. But her eyes were barely open and she clung to his arm with a death grip, she was scared. There was nothing more to it than that. She was terrified and since he was her friend she held onto him, nothing more he decided, nothing more. Finally the ride began to slow down and make its way back to the ground.

"Sorry" Gretchen said as the two caught their breath and she unwound herself from Gus's arm and scooted back to her side of the swing

"It's ok" Gus said relieved to have his breath back. The two sat in silence for another minute or two before reaching the ground and the ride stopped, allowing it's passengers to get off.

Gus lifted up the lap bar and hopped off "guess I'll see you around school Gretchen" he said as she jumped off herself

"Yeah" she said back and with that they went their separate ways.


	8. Problems with parents

"I'll just be a second" Vince said to his brother who agreed to wait in the car outside of Joslyn's house.

Vince had been on his way home from the fair but forgot that since his pocket had a hole in it he had asked Joslyn to hold his house key and well apparently she also forgot because she didn't give it back so he asked Chad to make a quick stop at her house. Anyways Vince went around the house to the backdoor; Joslyn had once told him and the others to always use the back door at her house because the front one was jammed. He was about to knock when he saw Joslyn through the window and he froze. She stood there leaning in a doorway; her arms folded across her stomach and her face a bright red color as she sobbed. He could tell she wasn't in any physical pain judging by the way she held herself but there was a man yelling at her; Vince didn't know her family but it had to be her father. He yelled and she cried, she cried uncontrollably and then her mother appeared and began yelling. She yelled at her husband and gestured to Joslyn who Vince could tell she was defending and the man yelled some more but then he marched over to the door. Vince had no time to hide but the angry man didn't care. He walked right by the fifteen year old standing dumbstruck in his backyard and got into the truck that was parked in the driveway and drove away.

Vince turned his face back to the window. Inside the house a still crying Joslyn said something and pointed to the next room. Her mother fallowed whatever it was her daughter was saying and disappeared from Vince's sight into the room. Vince was debating on what he should do when he saw Joslyn roll her head towards the window, she saw him. He stared at the sobbing girl meeting his gaze as she dug one shaky hand into her pocket and pulled out his key. Clutching it in her fist she peeled herself from the wall and went to the backdoor. She opened the door and Vince saw her red face was so tensed up and she was focusing all her energy on keeping her mouth closed. He took half a step towards her and when he did Joslyn practically ran down the two small wooden steps and threw her arms around his neck. Vince held her tight as she sobbed into his shoulder, hyperventilating slightly as she tried to regain her control. Although hesitant Vince placed one hand on the back of her head and began to smooth her hair which resulted in her burying her face even further into his sweatshirt. Vince could feel her teeth pressing into his shoulder as she opened her mouth to try and breathe. Behind him Joslyn held her hands clasped together so tightly that one might have thought she was trying to break her own fingers. She could only imagine what her friend thought of her right now but she didn't care, she was simply grateful that he was here, even if he couldn't make anything any better. Finally after a few minutes although she was still crying Joslyn's tears slowed to that of mostly sniffles and she pulled herself out of her friend's arms.

"Here's your key" she said handing him what he had come here for, her voice still rough and shaky.

Vince took it and with a small smile Joslyn went to go back inside

"Joslyn" Vince said stopping her but took an extra second to choose his next words carefully "your dad. Is he usually-" Vince began but was cut if.

"No. No he's never like that and I'm probably overreacting. I don't know what happened while we were at the fair but I've never seen him that mad before, ever" She answered. In a way she was lying, if what her father had said to her was true then she was NOT overreacting. But she said what she needed to because she knew what Vince was wondering, and he was wrong.

Her words came as a small relief to Vince. Her father had somehow been pushed over the edge tonight that much was true. But all he had done was yell so Vince took his key and said goodbye to his friend who responded with a small wave and a quiet "Bye" then he left and she went inside.

* * *

Spinelli slammed her door before school began that Monday morning. She really didn't care what her mother thought of her, what she said. She could ramble on about how she needed to put more thought into her appearance all she wanted but Spinelli was happy with how she looked and that was enough for her. Still every so often a day would come along where she looked in the mirror and thought she actually looked pretty, thought that she had finally gotten her hair just right or picked out the right shirt or she would decide to wear a necklace or a bracelet and it didn't look out of place. Whatever it was she felt something she rarely felt and it seemed like it was mostly on those days that her mother picked at her, so it was those days when the comments got to her.

_Your hair looks like you haven't brushed it in weeks! Go brush it!_

Spinelli clenched her fists in anger as she slid down her door and sat on the ground. Today she had actually tried! She never spent too much time on her hair, just ran the brush through it once or twice. But having woken up a few minutes early today she had spent a little more time on her hair and still her mother hated it! What Spinelli really hated was that her mother didn't understand. Her hair was pretty thin but Spinelli had her father's thick, stringy hair and it was simply impossible to get it as thin and silky as her mother's.

She looked at the clock and realizing that if she sat in here a minute longer she would miss her bus so she wiped away a tear and stood as she tied her hair back, it was no longer good enough to wear down.

* * *

Joslyn knew Vince would be at his locker right before the first bell so she went there full of nerves. She still wasn't sure when she would tell the others, or if she ever would. She took a deep breath as she shook the thought away; she would have to tell her friends sooner or later. But she didn't want their sympathy; sympathy couldn't fix what had been broken. So she would tell them all whenever the opportunity arose but for now she had to tell one, just one. She didn't want this to come out to all of her friends' months from now as if it had been a secret but not as soon as today as if she actually wanted them to know. But if one of them knew then she could tell the others whenever she decided they needed to know. Besides she felt that she owed Vince an explanation for Friday night.

"Hey" She said approaching his locker as he grabbed a textbook

"Hey" he said casually as if Friday night had never happened

"Um can we talk, about the other night?" Joslyn asked and her friend eyed her curiously

"Sure" he said wondering what she had to say. Was she going to tell him what had set her father off? Wasn't that her business?

"Um were you out there when my dad left?" She asked and Vince nodded, maybe she just wanted to know if her father had seen him. Although Vince was still trying to figure that out himself

Joslyn didn't say anything at first, it wasn't that she hadn't expected Vince to have been out there but she really didn't know how to tell him this.

"I don't suppose he told you where he was going?" Joslyn asked despite the fact that she knew he wouldn't have told her friend where he was going but this was the only way she could think of to tell him.

"No" Vince answered confused as Joslyn took a deep breath, she had said this aloud when alone in her room but only got through half the sentence before she began to cry.

Vince started to understand what Joslyn was trying to say when he saw her face begin to turn red, why would she ask if he knew where her father went? The only explanation that came to Vince's mind was one he hoped wasn't true.

"I was just wondering because… he didn't come back" she confessed. She had a few tears in her eyes and Vince's own eyes widened.

How could he do that to her?

It was no secret that Joslyn's parents spent most of their time fighting and Joslyn had even said a couple of times that it wouldn't surprise her if they were divorced by the time she was a senior but for her father to leave. To leave his wife was one thing but to leave his daughter, to walk out on her.

"Joslyn" Vince began as his friend wiped away the tears in her eyes

"It's ok" she said but of course it wasn't, how could it be?

"So how was your weekend?" She asked with a sniffle.

Vince hesitated but began to tell her about his basketball game, she wanted to hear it. She didn't want to talk about her father or her weekend which had no doubt been filled with misery. All she wanted was to get what had happened off her chest then listen to her friend tell her about how he won his latest basketball game, something happy.


	9. Christmas eve

On the day of Christmas eve T.J. went with Spinelli up to the ski mountain to go snowboarding. They spent most of the day there and it was nice to hang out again, just the two of them. They zoomed down the mountain keeping a close eye on each other so not to get separated by the constantly merging paths of the mountain. Looking at them you probably wouldn't have been able to tell that they had spent two years apart, the two were still the best of friends and each knew the other so well it was possible that they even knew each other better than they knew themselves. If they were too far apart to hear one another they communicated without words. T.J. would look to a trail and Spinelli would nod and fallow him down it or if they did get separated before losing sight of each other Spinelli gave T.J. a thumbs up telling him that she would make her way in his direction best she could and meet him at the bottom.

Yup no matter how much things had changed the two of them were still like two halves of the same whole, until they ran into a familiar face.

It was beginning to get dark out and the two were on their last run down before leaving when they took a turn down a path. They were right next to each other so T.J. was able to avoid it but not Spinelli. She was going probably a little faster than she should've been around a turn but it wasn't crowded and her control skills were good enough, had there not been a patch of ice hidden beneath the snow. Suddenly she felt as though her snowboard had been pulled out from under her and next thing she knew she was on the ground. In an attempt to break her fall Spinelli stuck out her arm behind her only to feel that the only thing she ended up breaking was her arm.

T.J. saw Spinelli go down and immediately stopped

"You ok Spinelli?" He asked thinking that it was probably nothing but then he saw the pain on her face which she was clearly holding in.

"I'm fine" she said trying to push up on her arm and stand up but that resulted in nothing but her having to bite back more tears and being totally collapsed on the ground.

She then tried to get up on her good arm but found it nearly impossible on the wet and slippery surface, not to mention that both her feet were strapped to her snowboard. T.J., with a worried look on his face, held out his arm to her to pull her up when someone else came to a stop next to them.

"You guys ok?" The person asked; it was Stephanie Florence.

Spinelli knew Stephanie from middle school and she knew that T.J. liked her. Now this caught Spinelli at a bit of an annoyance because while she didn't have anything against Stephanie when it came to a girl T.J. liked she felt like she should leave but she was kind of stuck.

"Hey Steph, we're fine Spinelli just fell" T.J. said but of course now the blood which was coming from the scrapes on Spinelli's broken arm was becoming visible on the snow, even in the dim light of the far off lamppost.

"Are you sure you're ok Ashley?" Stephanie asked in a concerned voice apparently ignoring that T.J. had called Ashley by her last name.

"Ok enough to get down the mountain" Spinelli responded knowing that her injury was all too obvious for her to just shrug it off, yet despite all this the most concerning thing on her mind was how mad her mom was going to be when she found out she was going to have to spend Christmas eve in the emergency room.

Finally T.J. held out his hand to her once again and pulled his friend to her feet, while being careful to not go sliding down himself in the process.

"Alright well I guess I'll see you guys later" Stephanie said glancing one last time at Spinelli's bleeding and broken arm as she rolled down her coat sleeve.

"Feel better Ashley" she said before skiing off.

T.J. watched the girl go with a dazed smile "isn't she sweet?" He asked not expecting an answer from his friend who simply rolled her eyes, again she had nothing against Stephanie but here she was trying to ignore the agonizing pain of a broken arm and the stinging sensation of snow coated blood dripping down her skin inside her jacket and all he could think about was how sweet Stephanie is.

"Whatever let's go" Spinelli said before turning her board and heading down to the base of the mountain.

* * *

After reuniting with his old friend Mikey, Christmas Eve found Gus volunteering with Mikey and his friend Vanessa at the senior center Christmas party. It was Mikey who had roped him into it but Vanessa who had put the idea in his head, apparently she did this every year with her sister and some other relatives and family friends and when Mikey asked about her holiday plans she mentioned it, he thought it was a great idea and asked if he could also volunteer and she said that the committee her mom's friend ran was always looking for help. After that Gus just wound up joining Mikey. Surprisingly the party wasn't just a few plates of cookies and bowls of punch, no they had been here almost all day decorating and cooking, making an actual Christmas dinner for the party along with a few plates of cookies. But it was fun and Gus was happy to know that despite having been away for a few years he and Mikey were still friends.

Mikey to enjoyed volunteering and he loved seeing what it did to Vanessa. That beautiful smile of hers hadn't left her face once all day and she seemed so happy. Come to think of it she had changed a lot since beginning high school, in middle school she was so shy and if someone spoke to her she responded in a fearful voice. But now she had become well not exactly friendly but more social and this was a place she knew, she was comfortable here, here she was friendly. Anyways Mikey and Vanessa had finally come across a few work free moments and were talking when Vanessa's mother's friend Gina who was in charge of all this, or as Vanessa called her 'her boss', came and pulled Vanessa into a side hug.

"Another great year" the older woman said in delight before releasing the teenager.

"Yup we pulled it off again" Vanessa said not even a little annoyed that Gina had interrupted her conversation, it was rare to see Gina in a good mood but one thing the woman took pride in was her work so on nights like this you didn't spoil it, besides she wasn't much of a conversationalist with younger volunteers, she'd give you your congrats and return to chatting with the seniors.

"And Mikey thank you for your help" she said shaking Mikey's hand

"You're welcome Gina" Mikey said in return.

"I tell you Vanessa I don't know what I'd do without you" Gina said which caught Vanessa a bit off guard considering she never really talked to Gina, just fallowed her orders.

"You'd still have Becky" Vanessa reminded her boss but Gina only rolled her eyes which didn't surprise Vanessa, volunteer work was one of the few things she had over Becky because her sister lacked the patience to listen to the seniors at the center telling her old stories.

"Well a few more years of this then I'm retiring and leaving you in charge" Gina said which caught Vanessa way of guard considering that she was one of the youngest volunteers. Sure she knew most of the other volunteers would also be retiring soon but that would still leave a few people older than her.

She wanted to ask Gina if she was serious but before she could she had found someone else to talk to and was gone.

* * *

Spinelli finally got home at nine thirty that night with her arm bandaged inside of a cast but of course that wasn't the end of it. Nope her parents were having their annual Christmas Eve party and most if not all of their family was there. However Spinelli was still drowsy from the stuff the doctor had given her for the pain and went up to her room to lie down. She kicked off her boots and took off her heavy ski pants which by now were soaked with more sweat than snow. She went to hang her wet snow gear up then remembered she had left her jacket in the car.

"Oh well" she muttered as she struggled to hang up her stuff using only one hand.

Finally with a growl she gave up and let her ski pants drop to the floor, she could deal with it in the morning. She sat down on her bed to pull off her wet socks and that's when there was a knock on her door. Standing with a sigh she went and opened the door only to see Menlo standing in the hall.

"Menlo?" She asked; why did Taylor have to bring her brother?

"I heard you got hurt, are you ok?" He asked glancing down at the cast on her right arm

"I'm fine" she answered hoping he would go away but instead he brought a small wrapped up box from behind his back.

"Merry Christmas" he said but she only looked at him

"They're opening presents downstairs but I figured you weren't coming down" he explained as she took the gift from him.

"Thanks, the present I got you is under the tree down there" she said. Her mom had made her buy Menlo a present but she hadn't expected him to get her anything.

Menlo nodded "hope you feel better" he said before leaving back down the stairs.

Spinelli closed the door and went back to her bed and with her good hand she unwrapped the box and opened it to find that inside was a necklace with a gold colored star for a pendant.


	10. Making and breaking friendships

When the term changed Gretchen found herself stuck in one of her least favorite classes, gym class. She made it through most of the term ok, she refused to sit out since it would drop her grade and obviously she wouldn't do that on purpose. She actually managed to get an A however she wasn't happy with it. She only got the good grade because she changed every day and participated, which was all you needed to do. The problem was that although she participated she wasn't very good at any of the sports, oh who was she kidding? She sucked! They spent a few weeks on volleyball and the guys on her team did their best to keep her away from the ball, they spent some time on basketball and she started to think that Vince had the right idea back in seventh grade; she couldn't make a shot to save her life. But that was what gave her an idea. They were approaching the baseball unit and Gretchen knew that she would suck at that to but after tutoring Vince last year he said that he owed her one and now she had a way for them to become even.

* * *

It was a usual day at lunch for T.J. and his friends. Hey had gotten lucky this term and their whole gang was together for lunch, which sometimes could seem like more of a curse than a blessing. Sure they were the best of friends but if just two of them had a problem a rift was sure to ensue. That rarely happened though, Spinelli and Joslyn said it was a benefit to hanging out with boys; they generally cared less for drama. However every so often something would start, usually something small like when Collin's girlfriend of one week dumped him and he was upset or Patrick did something stupid in class, got sent to the office and now the football coach was benching him or the time Gabe, who lives with his father, and his sister who he can't stand and lives with their mother were forced to spend a day in the same house. Little things like that, very rarely was there anything that went on between the friends but as everyone knows friends will inevitably fight, and on this late spring day two of them did.

"Hey Joslyn" a girl passing by the table said

"Hey" Joslyn responded casually and the girl kept going and Joslyn returned to her sandwich.

"Why don't you go sit with her?" Nate muttered under his breath but Joslyn heard him loud and clear

"I'm not great friends with her" Joslyn said seeming surprised that Nate had said something like that, especially since he may not have meant for her to hear it.

"You're not great friends with us either" he muttered almost too quietly to be heard, but Joslyn heard it.

"Nate" T.J. tried to butt in but Joslyn was clearly willing to have this argument

"I'm sorry do you have a problem with me all of a sudden?" She questioned clearly angered by Nate's attitude.

"No, not all of a sudden" Nate said smugly.

The rest of them knew where this was coming from, Monica's leaving. When she left they had all assumed Joslyn would to but as the year went on they began to realize that she wouldn't, all of them except Nate.

Joslyn stood up "you know if you want me gone all you have to do is say so" she said angrily, unlike the other's she had no idea what Nate's problem was but if this was how he felt then who was to say it wasn't how they all felt? Who was to say they weren't only being nice to her because they felt sorry for her? Who was to say they weren't just like Monica?

"I don't want you gone I just want you to hurry up and leave already" Nate said to which Joslyn looked at him both annoyed and confused

"What does that mean?" She asked honestly confused

"It means that it's going to hurt when you leave but the longer you stay the more it will and I don't want my friends or myself to have to feel that pain" Nate explained as the other's exchanged glances, even if Joslyn wasn't going to leave that was pretty deep.

"And what makes you think I'm going to leave?" Joslyn asked suddenly less angry and more curious, she wasn't going anywhere. She loved her friends, she would never leave them.

"Monica left" Nate reminded her as she sat back down

"Yeah because she's the bossiest person I've ever met and only cares about herself, she saw you guys weren't going to let her make you feel worthless so she left the first chance she got" Joslyn said. She was unbelievably hurt by what Monica had done; she had been best friends with the girl since fifth grade when Monica moved to town and she just stood up and left.

What really angered Joslyn was that Monica had been picked on a lot when she first moved here and she defended her! She had been the smallest girl in their fifth grade class and once took on the biggest one defending Monica, her blood boiled at the memory, she got beat up so hard that day that she still had the scar on her right shoulder and looking back on it Monica had deserved every insult she was getting.

But that was in the past and she was no longer Monica's little servant and it killed her to know Nate thought she could ever be anything like that sorry soulless excuse for a friend.

Nate on the other hand was surprised by the fire in Joslyn's eyes and hatred in her voice. She had defended Monica when she left, said they were still friends. Maybe reality had also gotten through to her over the course of the year, maybe.

* * *

Vince was at his locker after school, it was the only time and place Gretchen knew where to find him. She approached her old friend nervously; she wasn't used to asking for help when it came to school, never mind from him.

"Hey" he said to her without looking up before she could even say anything.

"Um hey" Gretchen replied nervously as Vince pulled his head out of his locker and jumped a little

"Oh it's you. Sorry I thought you were someone else" He explained as he closed the locker

"Sorry to disappoint you" Gretchen said sarcastically which caused Vince to smirk

"So what's up?" He asked wondering why Gretchen was here, they hadn't spoken much since the end of last year and were still stuck in this awkward place where they weren't really friends but at the same time they no longer hated each other.

"I was wondering if you could maybe help me with something." She asked, voice getting quieter and quieter with every word.

"Help you with what exactly?" He asked as the two began to walk down the hall

Gretchen let out a sigh "it's almost the end of the year and on Monday we start the last unit of the year in gym and no matter how hard I try I just suck at everything" she began to explain.

Vince frowned, what exactly did she want him to do?

"So do you think you could teach me how to play baseball?" She asked totally humiliated to do so.

Vince considered it, he knew he couldn't train her to be good and he doubted that she would improve much at all but he owed her. Without her he never would've passed Algebra last year and besides it wasn't like she was trying to make the softball team, she just didn't want to make a total fool of herself again.

"Meet me at the park tonight at five" he said with a grin and Gretchen gave one back

"Thanks" she said.

* * *

Nate went and found Joslyn in the crowd as they left school that day.

"Hey um I'm sorry about lunch, I just thought that you know Monica didn't like us and you two were such good friends, I just assumed you would leave to" he apologized but she looked him in the eye with a look that said "apology not accepted"

"My dad left Nate" she informed him. He looked at her in shock but as she stared him down with a look of anger and pain. She had said that she would tell the others when they needed to know; now he needed to know.

"A couple of months ago I came home and he was on his way out. I asked where he was going and he said nowhere. But he also said he wasn't coming back. I started balling my eyes out begging him to stay and he just yelled at me" she continued full of fury and sadness as she wiped her eyes before the tears could spill.

"He screamed at me. He called me a selfish little brat and said I didn't care about my family, then my mom came in and they started fighting, then he left." She explained taking a deep breath, trying desperately to control herself. Months may have passed since that awful night but the feelings were all too quick to resurface upon the memory.

"Do you know what happened after he left?" She questioned and Nate shook his head, trying to comprehend what had happened to Joslyn and that she had hidden it for months.

"Vince was there. He had come by to get something and he saw what happened, he saw me miserable. But he held onto me and did not let go until I was ready for him to, the next day I called Monica and told her what happened and she said that she was sorry and asked if I needed to talk" Joslyn continued to explain growing angry as she thought of not only her father but what had broken the final straw with Monica.

"So I started talking and she didn't listen to a single word I said" She finished. That had been the day she discovered who her real friends were, the day she realized who Monica really was.

That was when she saw the flashing lights of the nearest school bus "You might want to get to your bus" she said before turning to walk home like she did every day.

Nate thought about apologizing again but Joslyn was already gone so he turned with his head hung low and walked to his bus.


	11. Out of your comfort zone

Vince stood there not far from the soccer field in the park waiting for Gretchen. A part of him couldn't help but find this situation at least somewhat amusing, they were in the exact same position they had been in last year except the roles were reversed. Well sort of, Gretchen wasn't in any danger of failing but still Vince was tutoring her. Finally she came into sight and met Vince where he was standing

"Hey" she said a little awkwardly, she had half expected Vince to not show up

"Hey" he said back picking up the two gloves he had brought with him

"You ready?" He asked holding one out to her

"Yes" she responded taking the glove.

And so they began.

Once Vince decided that he and Gretchen were far enough apart he threw the ball to her, she shrieked and ducked out of the way.

"Sorry" she apologized as she hurried to get the ball and Vince let out a sigh, this was going to be a lot of work.

* * *

Spinelli knew she would have her cast off weeks before her brother's wedding and she did but when the day came she was still relieved that she didn't have the dark blue shell contrasting with her bright pink dress. She was a bridesmaid so she had to wear what Taylor had picked out but she had to say that she liked it. The pink dress ended just above her knees and clung tightly to her body. It had two thick straps going over her shoulders and was gathered at the left side. She dug through her jewelry box looking for a necklace; Taylor said that she didn't care what the bridesmaids wore for jewelry if they wore any. Of course Spinelli was beginning to think that she might be better off not wearing anything, all the jewelry she had was either cheap stuff won at an arcade or so old she had lost it long ago. However lying off to the side of the box a silver chain caught her eye and in picking it up Spinelli saw that it was the necklace Menlo had given her for Christmas, with a small smile she decided to wear it and after cursing the stupid clasps for being so impossible to fasten she finally got it and gave the necklace a slight tug to be sure it wouldn't fall off. Taking one last look in the mirror Ashley smiled in approval of her appearance, her curled brown hair hung down but still out of her face and in her black heels she actually looked well not tall but average height. Aside from that she knew that for once her mother would approve of how she looked and on today of all days she did not want to have an argument with the woman.

But secretly there was a little more to it than that. Ashley loved that she had grown up to be such a tough person and she loved her usual appearance, but getting dressed up like this reminded her of when she was a preschooler and was always wanting to play with her little make up kit and ran around the house in her princess dress, sometimes she couldn't believe that had been her. It was a side of her she had almost forgotten existed and she wouldn't let anyone know that she didn't hate it, it was a piece of her personality which she chose to abandon long ago but every once in a while, given an excuse, she didn't mind going to find it.

* * *

Saturday was day two of Vince tutoring Gretchen and it was not going as well as it could've been.

"Ok remember point your toe towards me when you throw and rotate your whole shoulder" Vince said readying himself to catch the ball.

Gretchen did exactly what Vince said but the ball barely went half the distance it should have.

"I did what you told me to" Gretchen exclaimed defensively as she saw Vince do a face palm before leaving his position and picking up the ball on his way over to her.

"I pointed my toe, I rotated my shoulder. I don't know what went wrong" she continued and Vince only sighed

"What went wrong was that you didn't move your legs, you just moved your arm" he explained to her

"You didn't tell me to move my legs" she argued

Vince was beginning to lose his patience's, had she ever seen anyone throw a baseball?

"Like this" he said, he stood side ways then brought his front leg up and leaned back, rotating his shoulder as he set his leg down with his toe pointed ahead and went through the motion of throwing the ball.

Gretchen tried to mimic the motion and she got it so Vince had her throw the ball for real, her aim still needs work.

So the two of them threw the ball back and forth until finally Gretchen threw it and Vince's heart skipped a beat when had he not caught it the baseball would've surely crashed right into his ribcage, Gretchen had defiantly given it enough power to do so.

"Not bad" he said with a grin as he threw the ball back to her

"I think I'm starting to get the hang of this" Gretchen responded catching the ball and throwing it again.

"You getting there" Vince said thinking that she was becoming at least adequate

"But you haven't even tried batting yet" he teased and he saw her make a face

"Why don't I just get this down first?" She asked as Vince caught the ball but this time he didn't throw it back

"No come on let's head over to the batting cage" He said leaving his position and picking up his bat.

Gretchen, of course, wanted to argue but she simply rolled her eyes and fallowed. The batting cage wasn't so much a cage as it was a fairly large square built out of pipes with a net draped over it but for the park it was pretty good.

The two ducked underneath the net and went over to the home plate embedded into the ground.

"Ok so stand sideways facing the plate, knees bent, toes facing in, hold the bat like this, take half a step back touching your front toe to your back foot and swing" Vince demonstrated before handing Gretchen the bat, and teaching her how to hold it.

So with that he backed up to the pitcher's mound and pitched a ball, Gretchen swung and missed. He threw another ball and much to his surprise he had to duck when she smacked it right up the middle.

"Whoa" Vince exclaimed as he turned his head to see the ball had it the back of the cage

Slowly he got up from his crouched position and went to retrieve the ball, Gretchen may not be the best when it came to throwing but she defiantly had some potential as a hitter.

* * *

T.J. would never admit it but driving made him pretty nervous. He's just naturally such an easy going guy so when it came to something where one wrong move could cost him his life, it wasn't something he was thrilled about. He didn't know why the thought of something like that scared him so much, sure he was pretty laid back but he had always had a habit of finding himself in some sort of leadership position. During elementary school he had been known as the leader of his gang, in sixth grade he was crowned as the new king by king Freddie and in middle school he somehow wound up as the president of the robotics club. Maybe what scared him was that he could handle pressure and responsibility no problem because he was good at getting out of trouble but if he got in an accident, well that was one kind of trouble he wouldn't be able to talk or even scheme his way out of.

"There's a stop sign here" his mom said to him from the passenger seat.

That was another thing, driving with his mother. Sure this was his first time driving outside of a parking lot since getting his learners permit but he had been on this road hundreds of times throughout his life and he knew that there was a stop sign at the end of it. Why she felt the need to tell him the instant he turned onto the road he had no idea. All he knew was that he was terrified of hitting something and her constantly telling him only things he already knew was not helping.

* * *

It was the last day of gym class before the exam, the last day of baseball. Gretchen had been doing better than she had in any other sport; there was no doubt about that. But she was still one of the worst players no matter how many hours she spent practicing with Vince. But she was getting better and today she wanted nothing more but to do something right, to not strikeout or get out running to first, to catch just one ball that came her way, to leave this class having proved that she had some potential. It was there, Vince had said it, somewhere buried far beneath all her brains and intelligence she had the potential to be a decent baseball player.

She wasn't bad when it came to batting; in fact she was very good at hitting them straight up the middle. Something to which this girl Joslyn, who was in her class and on the softball team, said she couldn't do. But the problem was that every time she did that the pitcher either caught it and she was automatically out or the second basemen grabbed it off the ground and she was thrown out at first. So today Gretchen stepped up to bat, one ball went by and the teacher called it a strike. Then a second ball and thinking it was another strike she swung, hearing the clang of the metal bat against the ball she took off running and almost made it to first. She wanted to look and see if she might actually make it but she remembered what Vince had told her

_Don't worry about where the ball is, the only reason you should worry about where the ball is, is if it's embedded in your skull. Just run and don't stop until someone tells you to_

So she ran then much to her amazement she not only made it to first but she rounded it. She kept going, not paying attention to the fact that she isn't a runner and was almost out of breath. She just ran and was halfway to second when she heard the voices of some of her teammates on the bench

"SLIDE, SLIDE!" They shouted in unison

For maybe the first time in her life Gretchen didn't think about her next move. All she knew was that her teammates who could see everything were telling her to slide so that's what she did. She let her legs collapse underneath her and sticking one out she skidded on her side into second base.

"SAFE!" She heard the teacher yell and she opened her eyes.

She was on the ground covered in dirt and the ball was being thrown in from right field, she had no idea where it went when she hit it but she didn't care. Trying to hide a smile she stood up and dusted herself off and the game continued with the next batter. The game went on but until that next clang of the bat snapped her out of it Gretchen's world stayed still. She did it, she actually did it. She didn't make a complete fool of herself she wasn't the absolute worst player in the class, and she proved to herself that she could do more than memorize facts.


	12. Unexpected reactions

It was the first week of October. The school had a Halloween party every year for the juniors and seniors and of course Spinelli was planning on going. So anyways it was during her fourth period art class as she was trying to smooth out all of the bumps in her pottery project when Eric Baker who sat next to her came in late, again.

"Get called down to the office again?" She teased as he sat down; she and Eric were sort of friends or at least friends enough to where she could tease about things and have him not get mad

"No I just got back from the dentist" he explained and Spinelli nodded as she continued to work

"So hey I was wondering, would you want to go to the Halloween party with me?" He asked suddenly regretting it when his friend looked at him as if he were crazy, and he thought the worst she could do was say no.

Spinelli hadn't meant to give Eric that look; he just caught her way off guard. She knew people went with dates to the Halloween party but she never expected anyone to ask her.

"You mean like a date?" She asked awkwardly, wanting to smack herself for asking such a stupid question.

"As a date, as friends whatever you want to call it, do you want to go?" he asked again.

Spinelli's mind was telling her no but she couldn't find a reason to give that answer

"Sure" she accepted with a smile causing Eric to grin with the joy that she had actually said yes, he knew Spinelli wasn't exactly the easiest person in the world to get close to.

* * *

Vanessa made a gaging noise when Gus told her of who he was planning to ask to the Halloween party. He wished that she could've been a little more compassionate about it since he was so nervous but then again he couldn't expect too much of her, he knew that she didn't always like her sister.

"So I take that as a no?" Gus asked sheepishly as his friend looked at him confused

"What?" She asked before realizing that his suggesting he might ask Becky was really his way of asking her if she was ok with it.

"Gus do whatever you want, just don't hurt her" She said quickly saving herself from the slight misunderstanding.

Vanessa would never admit it and only if necessary would she show it but she was protective over Becky. Sure Becky was better than her at almost everything and a total snob about it but she was still her sister, the only one she had. She wasn't worried about Gus of course, he was her friend and could've asked her sister out without even notifying her but the fact that he felt he should ask her permission put a new form of respect for Gus in Vanessa. Which was saying a lot since there were very few people on the planet earth whom Vanessa actually respected, she liked to think that there is a big difference between respecting rules and respecting people.

* * *

Spinelli was actually excited about going to the party with Eric, after all no guy had ever asked her out before. Naturally since he's her best friend T.J. was the first person she told about it, that didn't go quite the way she had expected.

"Eric Baker? Are you out of your mind Spinelli? That guy is bad news" T.J. said to her angrily.

"No he's not" Spinelli argued kind of annoyed that T.J. couldn't just be happy for her, after all he and Stephanie had been dating for about a month now and she never once said anything bad about the girl, not that she had anything bad to say, she actually liked Stephanie although it did amaze her that the couple had lasted this long, T.J. and Stephanie are both great people but they aren't meant to be.

Of course Spinelli never said anything like that out loud; she knew that they would break up sooner or later.

"Yes he is, he's a cheater" T.J. informed his best friend, ok maybe cheater was stretching it a little. Eric once dated Ashley Quinlan and then kissed Jessica Smith (known as upside-down girl back at Third Street) but T.J. was pretty sure that kiss had been not only on a dare but also as part of a play they were doing in English class.

Regardless of the conditions of that it seemed to irritate Spinelli that T.J. would say such a thing.

"He is not!" She fumed as the two walked into their English class; they had been oh so lucky and gotten Finster.

"And look who it is, Bonnie and Clyde. Well at least you're on time today" Ms. Finster grumbled her greeting as the bickering friends entered her classroom.

She probably wasn't ever going to forget a single thing the two did in elementary school and since it seemed that they were still just as inseparable as they had been when they were ten she had begun calling them Bonnie and Clyde, to the point where every so often Spinelli would write the name Bonnie on her paper just to force her teacher into checking every class list she had looking for a Bonnie before she realized that it was Spinelli.

_She has her grandmother's since of humor _Finster would think to herself every time that happened.

Neither T.J. nor Spinelli paid attention during the review for tomorrows test; instead their argument was still alive.

"I'm telling you he's going to cheat on you" T.J. whispered as Spinelli folded her arms and narrowed her eyes

"It's just one date, it's not like he asked me to be his girlfriend" she defended which nearly made T.J.'s blood run cold

"What would you have said if he had?" He asked suddenly more frightened than before but Spinelli was still defensive and angry

"I don't know, maybe I would've said yes just to bug you" she responded, she didn't really mean that and as much as she was trying to win this argument she was beginning to have second thoughts.

She trusts T.J. he would never do anything to hurt her and if he said that this guy was bad news than a part of her wanted to cancel the date right now but another part of her told her no. What if he was wrong? How could he know for sure? If she canceled the date just on T.J.'s word than she could be throwing away a chance she would regret not taking. Besides what did that say about her if she did something like this just because T.J. told her to? She had a mind of her own; she didn't anybody telling her what she should and shouldn't do.

"Spinelli I just don't want to see you get hurt" T.J. said trying to reason with her but when she turned to sit sideways in her seat therefor facing him he knew he had only made things worse.

"Excuse me but I can take care of myself" she whispered furious that he felt the need to protect HER.

"Spinelli, Detweiler! Stop whispering and pay attention!" Finster suddenly and loudly scolded making examples of them in front of the entire class

"Sorry Ms. Finster" the two said in unison, both of their faces turning red with embarrassment, did she really need to call them out in front of the whole class?

* * *

"Hey" Becky said sliding into her seat on the bus next to her sister

"Hey" Vanessa said glancing up from her book for only a second; she had to finish reading two chapters for a test tomorrow and wanted to get it done as soon as possible.

"So guess what, your friend Gus asked me to the Halloween party" Becky informed her sister who closed her book, leaving her thumb inside of it so she would be able to find her place as soon as this conversation was over.

"Really, what did you say?" Vanessa asked wondering what she would have to say to Gus in order to cheer him up; it was actually kind of funny. She had warned Gus not to hurt Becky when Becky was more likely to be the one hurting him.

"Yes" Becky answered which took Vanessa way off guard. Up until that second she was under the impression that Becky hated her friends.

"What?" Becky questioned when she saw the obviously shocked look on Vanessa's face.

Vanessa shook her head as she reopened her book "nothing I just didn't think Gus was your type" she said thinking that would be the end of the conversation.

"Oh and what is my type?" Becky asked causing Vanessa to roll her eyes.

_I don't know but the only reason you even socialize with me is because we're related so I doubt my friends are your type_ she thought annoyed but she would never say that out loud.

"I don't know I just meant that I never pictured you with Gus" she answered as she returned to her reading and Becky finally dropped the conversation.


	13. Halloween

"Now I would never go after another guy's girlfriend, especially a friend's, but that girl is hot" Patrick said as him and some of the guys sat around their table. Mikey was sitting with them, he had sort of restarted his friendship with Spinelli after being in her poetry class last year and he liked hanging out with T.J. and Vince again. But he was confused because when Patrick pointed to the girl he claimed was hot, he pointed to Vanessa.

"Vanessa doesn't have a boyfriend" he said trying to figure out who Patrick thought she was dating. She didn't have a boyfriend, she would've told him, right?

Patrick, Nate and Collin all glared at him "wait we thought you two were?" Collin said awkwardly as he started to realize that Mikey and Vanessa were just friends.

"No" Mikey told them shaking his head in embarrassment "no we're just friends" he continued

"Sorry it's just you know you're usually together and well you knew her in middle school, she never said more than two words to anybody but ever since you two started hanging out she actually talks" Nate said trying to explain why they had thought what they did. Mikey nodded which told him that he could stop.

So the three kept talking but Mikey was lost in his own thoughts, he knew that Vanessa had come out of her shell during high school, there was no question about that. But he never thought that he had anything to do with it. Patrick was right though, she was beautiful. Mikey would never say she was hot; he hated using a word like that to describe a person, especially his best friend. He knew when Patrick had said that after Vanessa left the table to say hi to somebody he had been talking about the shirt of her genie costume exposing most if not all of her stomach but that wasn't why Mikey thought she was pretty, or at least it wasn't the only reason. If he had to say what he liked about her physical appearance he would say how her silky brownish-blackish hair fell down to the very bottom of her back and how that contrasting with her pale skin and caused her Uncle Kenny to nickname her Snow White. But most of all Mikey loved her smile, that beautiful smile she always wore and the way her face turned bright red when she laughed no matter how hard she tried to stop herself.

* * *

Spinelli stood alone in a corner, she'd been avoiding T.J. all night but she knew that sooner or later he would find her and sure enough he did.

"Heard you got stood up" he said sounding like he was trying to decide between being sympathetic and saying 'I told you so.'

Spinelli shrugged "ok you were right, happy now?" She asked with her voice filled with hostility and hatred.

T.J. placed an arm around his friend's shoulders, something he used to do when she was upset or angry. He was a little hesitant to do this now, when they were kids it had been so innocent but he knew that now putting your arm around somebody meant something.

Spinelli's heart skipped a beat when she felt the warmth of T.J.'s arm across the very top of her back, his hand resting firmly on her shoulder. She had lost count of how many times over the years she had longed for this feeling, the feeling of T.J. picking her back up when she fell. She had missed it both when she was away and after coming back, she was beginning to think that this part of their friendship was lost forever.

* * *

Gretchen had outgrown her enjoyment of Halloween in sixth grade so she didn't go to the party. She figured that she didn't like Halloween and she didn't have a date so why go? Instead she stayed home and handed out candy to the trick-or-treaters which wasn't anything special but she still felt that she should celebrate in some way. So the night was winding down and it had been maybe ten minutes since the last trick-or-treater when the doorbell rang but when Gretchen opened it she saw Joslyn from her sophomore gym class standing there dressed as a pirate and was holding the hand of a little boy dressed as a dinosaur.

"Oh hey Gretchen" Joslyn said seeming like she was embarrassed that she had stumbled upon someone she knew handing out candy.

"Hi" Gretchen said almost just as embarrassed as the little boy held out his small pumpkin

"Trick treat" he said causing both the girls to giggle as Gretchen placed two mini candy bars into his pumpkin

"This is my cousin Brandon" Joslyn said as the little boy thanked Gretchen and leaned against his older cousin's leg, reaching up his arms. He was used to his mother stopping to talk to people and knew to behave himself when she did but he hated standing there so he always begged for her to hold him while she talked, he loved that his cousin was willing to do the same thing.

Joslyn slid her Halloween bag onto her shoulder and lifted the little boy onto her hip "So did you leave the party early or finish trick-or-treating?" Joslyn asked, everyone she knew had either gone to the school's party or was out trick-or-treating.

"Neither. Halloween isn't really my thing" Gretchen admitted as Joslyn tried to hide her frown. Her aunt was like that, that was why she was the one bringing Brandon trick-or-treating.

Her aunt was one of those people who had outgrown Halloween at the age of ten; she said Joslyn was too old for it. But Brandon's father was away on a business trip and since his mother hates Halloween Brandon became his cousin's ticket out of the house tonight, Joslyn and her mother had moved into the other side of the two family house which her aunt owned not long after her dad left so if she wanted to celebrate Halloween without getting teased by her aunt she needed an excuse.

"Well suit yourself but it's the one night of the year that we can be kids again" Joslyn said shrugging as she turned to go "goodnight" she said as she left.

Gretchen just stood in the doorway thinking about that, it was true. Her and her friends were sixteen to seventeen years old, some of them drove and some of them had jobs, heck she was considering graduating early. Tonight was the one night of the year in which all that could be forgotten, none of it mattered. For just one night everybody could go back to being kids and here she was choosing to sit it out.


	14. Falling

Joslyn was working at her job after school in the local comic shop when Nate of all people walked in.

"Joslyn, since when do you work here?" He asked surprised to see her although she didn't seem surprised to see him. Then again she knew he kept comic books in his backpack, he didn't know that she had ever so much as picked one up.

"Just started a month ago" she responded from the counter clearly enjoying that fact that in the empty shop he couldn't ignore her. She was being patient with him but it was the beginning of November and he still had barely spoken to her since last May.

Nate went over to a shelf and quickly selected the comic he had come here for, normally he liked to look around at the other stuff in the shop but with Joslyn working he just wanted to get in and out as fast as he possibly could. So he grabbed the book and put it on the counter then went through his wallet for the money as Joslyn rang it up.

_Ok this is pathetic _Nate thought as he took out his money, he was not about to start only going to his favorite comic shop when a certain person wasn't working just because he made her mad a few months ago.

"Hey um listen I'm, I'm really sorry about what I said a while ago. I didn't know about your dad" he apologized handing Joslyn the money. She put it in the cash register, gave him his change and put the comic book in a bag.

"You didn't say anything that had to do with my dad, I just chose that moment to tell you about him" She said but as she handed Nate the bag she grinned.

"But if you really feel that bad then apology accepted" she said causing Nate to smile just a little as he left.

* * *

Mikey could barely watch as Vanessa attempted the different obstacles at the old skate park. Sometimes he wondered why she didn't compete, she was good enough to in his opinion but according to her she wouldn't stand a chance. He tried a few things himself but for the most part he was content sitting on the ledge of the half pipe watching his friend and trying to get some homework finished.

"Have you studied at all for the French test tomorrow?" He asked her when she finally stopped to catch her breath

"A little" she replied grabbing her water bottle, Mikey knew that by a little she meant that she had skimmed the vocab list.

Taking a long sip of her water she sat down next to him taking off her helmet and leaning her head back against the rail.

"So has Gus been driving you as crazy as Becky's been driving me?" She asked, Vanessa normally wasn't one for gossip but if her sister was driving her nuts then she made an exception.

Gus and Becky had been dating ever since Halloween and it was starting to bother Vanessa that sitting with her friends at lunch no longer meant sitting far from her sister.

Mikey shrugged "I don't know I think it's just going to take some getting used to"

Vanessa nodded "yeah I guess, god I never thought I'd see my sister with a boyfriend" she said slightly chuckling. Then again maybe that was just something normal for siblings, you know that the day will come when they begin dating but for the life of you it's impossible to picture.

"Hey it's not like there aren't any guys who like you, I can think of a few who have told me how pretty they think you are" Mikey said just trying to be nice but Vanessa glared at him.

"Why would they tell you?" She asked almost offended, she didn't really believe that people thought she was pretty but if someone did, why were they telling Mikey?

Mikey only shrugged thinking that he probably shouldn't say anything more so Vanessa rolled her eyes and stood up

"Whatever" she mumbled strapping her helmet back on and heading down the half pipe. At the other side of it she tried a flip she was yet to perfect, maybe her skill level wasn't high enough or she was still grumbling about her conversation with Mikey and her focus was off. Whatever it was something went wrong.

Mikey saw Vanessa fall off her board in midair and heard her let out a short shriek in fear before her head made contact with the wood of the ramp, effectively knocking her out.

"Vanessa!" Mikey exclaimed sliding down to the bottom of the ramp on his back and springing to his feet the second he could.

He dropped to his knees besides Vanessa's unconscious form desperately shaking her arm

"Vanessa, hey Vanessa wake up. Come on Vanessa wake up, get up" he pleaded. She turned her head to the side and moaned which sent a huge wave of relief over Mikey. Turning her head back his friend opened her eyes before rubbing them as she sat up

"Dah! That, that hurt!" She exclaimed as she got to her feet and went to grab her discarded skateboard

"You're ok?" Mikey asked watching her carefully and quickly getting to his feet upon noticing that she was swaying from side to side.

"Yeah I, I'm, I'm fine. I'm fine" She answered but her words slurred together like those of a drunken sailor.

Suddenly she went down again face first but this time Mikey grabbed her from behind and held her up. Standing there with Vanessa's limp body in his arms he tried to think of what to do, she wasn't heavy but she lived three streets away and due to how far behind the factory the skate park was it would feel more like five, he couldn't carry her all that way. But neither one of them had a phone so he'd just have to wait until she woke up and then hope she didn't pass out again on the walk home. So he carefully laid her down where they were at the base of the ramp and after that was done he went to grab her skateboard. Just as he picked it up he heard her moaning again behind him and turned to see her sitting up.

"Don't get up, just sit there while I grab my stuff" he ordered before hurrying back to the ladder to get his stuff, he'd have to come back later for his bike but he didn't mind, it's not like anyone knew it was here and would steal it.

He returned to find Vanessa where he left her taking off her helmet. Slinging his backpack onto his shoulders he picked up her skateboard

"I can carry it" Vanessa protested but Mikey only held out a hand to her, she rolled her eyes but obeyed Mikey's unspoken words and took it allowing him to slowly pull her to her feet.

"Are you good?" He asked wanting to make sure before they began the walk home, the last thing that they needed was for her to faint in the middle of the road.

"Yeah, probably got a concussion but I'm ok" she said, her speech much clearer this time.

"And my friends tease me for wearing a helmet" she joked as they began walking.

They had walked about a street and a half, with Mikey occasionally placing his hand on Vanessa's back for only a second at a time because she swatted his hand away each time insisting that she was fine walking herself.

"Hey thanks for getting me up by the way" she said as they walked

"What you thought I'd just leave you there?" Mikey asked with a chuckle but Vanessa shrugged

"When we were ten Becky and I went camping with our Girl Scout troop and I was really homesick. I got locked outside the cabin one night and granted nobody knew I was out there I had snuck out for some air but I guess I was so homesick that I fainted. When I finally came to I looked at my watch, half an hour had passed and nobody noticed I was lying unconscious in a bush" she said with just a hint of annoyance in her voice.

Mikey just looked down not knowing what to say

"You know it's weird, my dad used to tell us that being twins meant that we would never be alone but it feels like until two years ago I spent most of my life alone, all I did was shut people out" She said seeming to be lost in her thoughts until she looked back at Mikey

"I'm sorry I think my concussion's getting worse, I didn't mean to bore you with any of that" She apologized.

"If this is what you're like with a concussion then you need to hit your head more often" Mikey joked to which Vanessa gave an amused smile

"And why is that?" She asked wondering what the punchline to this joke could be

"Like you said, you shut people out; it's nice to hear you open up" Mikey said causing Vanessa to roll her eyes

"Yeah well don't get to use to it" she said.

* * *

What was it with Gretchen and guys she used to hate? First she tutored Vince and was at least back on civil terms with him but now she found herself talking in the hallway with none other than Conrad Mundy. He was a year older than her so one would think that he'd be too caught up in the fun of having made it to his senior year to be talking to someone he had never once said anything to. Gretchen had no idea what made him talk to her all of a sudden, she supposed it was because they were in the same study hall and it was so quiet in there, he just wanted to break the silence. She had to say though she was beginning to like Mundy, he wasn't anything like he used to be. Sure he was still the carefree and trouble causing kid she knew in elementary school but he was different. For one thing his criminal record never got worse than stealing from Kelso's all those years ago, the worst thing he had now was a couple of speeding tickets and he had gotten his grades up. He said that he was joining the marines after graduation and wanted to make sure they thought he was smart enough. Anyways Gretchen would walk with him to study hall and even talk to him during it, something which she never used to do and annoyed the teacher greatly. She was proud of who she was, she had always been the class genius and was currently one of the top kids in her class while Mundy was still on the lower half of his but everything he talked about just sounded so exciting to Gretchen. He'd tell her about the tricks he did with his motorcycle and how he and his friends were fixing up his dads old car to enter it in the demolition derby next year at the fair or how his truck got stuck in a mud pit the last time he went off-roading. It was stuff that had never interested her before; in fact she always hated it. Hearing about how hurt people got doing those types of things she wondered why anybody did them. But when Mundy talked about it he laughed and said how much fun it had been, even if he walked away with an injury. And Gretchen couldn't understand why but every time she heard one of these stories she secretly wished she could do something like that.


	15. The trouble with girls

"I need your help" a nervous voice said to Spinelli as she closed her locker, she turned her head to see none other than Menlo standing there.

"Excuse me?" She asked a little confused, her and Menlo had never crossed paths in school before finding out that their siblings were engaged so once that was discovered and especially after the wedding the two seemed to have an unspoken understanding that their lives were still separate from each other in school.

"There's this girl in my pre-calculus class and I really like her and I want to ask her out but I, I'm too nervous!" He began rambling causing Spinelli to roll her eyes, why did he pick her for this kind of help?

"Ok so how is this my problem?" She asked hoping that maybe he would just tell her to forget it and go bug one of his friends.

"Ashley come on, help me!" He begged once again causing Spinelli to once again roll her eyes, aside from some teachers Menlo is probably the only person in school who still uses her first name.

Just then the bell rang

"Alright look if I'm late to English again Finster's going to kill me. Just be casual about it, pull her aside at the end of class and ask if she wants to go to the movies" Spinelli said as she hurried to English, she knew she would be hearing the result of this later but she could never have imagined how.

* * *

T.J. wasn't stupid, but he was beginning to think that he may be blind. He thought that everything was great between Stephanie and him, he really liked her and he thought that she felt the same way. But today he found out the hard way that wasn't the case. He thought that maybe he would surprise her by meeting her outside of her science class when it ended, not really the best surprise but they only got to see each other a handful of times during the day so he thought she would find it sweet. So at the sound of the bell he practically sprinted through the halls of the third floor trying to make it to her class before she left. He made it there just in time to see her leaving but before he could say anything or even get close enough to the door to say anything she wrapped her arms around the neck of a guy standing outside the doorway and leaned in for a kiss.

T.J. felt his heart drop.

He just stood there in the middle of the hallway (much to the annoyances of everyone around him) staring at the sight before him when finally Stephanie broke apart from the guy and began walking; however she stopped dead in her tracks when she saw T.J.

"We're done" he spat at her shaking his head before he walked away.

* * *

It was last period German class. Spinelli hated this class both because she hated the work and because she was stuck sitting next to none other than her old friend Monica who on the other side of her sat one of her snobby friends and the two never once shut up. Spinelli had to admit that she pitied Lexi, the snob in question, sure she was annoying but Monica was still far worse. Lexi didn't understand German at all, in fact she was probably only passing because Monica was good and the class did a lot of partner work. Anyways every time Monica started a conversation with her friend she would start it in German, to which Lexi would only glare at her confused before Monica translated her sentence and continued the entire conversation in English. It made Spinelli grit her teeth every time, Monica knew that Lexi couldn't speak German to save her life but she got some kind of sick enjoyment out of making her feel bad. Normally Spinelli wasn't at all interested in what the two were saying but today, today was different.

"So today in pre-calculus that little weirdo Menlo asked me out" Monica said and Spinelli hoped that nobody saw it when she did a face palm.

_Seriously! What does Menlo see in her? _She wondered

"So what did you say?" Lexi questioned slightly intrigued

"I said no, that guy's a creep" Monica claimed.

Spinelli balled her hands into two fists but kept her mouth shut, reminding herself that regardless of the reason Menlo should be counting his lucky stars that the world's biggest pain in the neck wanted nothing to do with him.

"Weird defiantly, but I wouldn't call him a creep" Lexi argued but Monica only scoffed.

"I would. The guys wears a tie to school every day and starts sweating every time he tries to have a normal conversation" Monica ranted exaggerating just a little bit, just enough to push Spinelli over the edge.

"Lay off him" she muttered causing Monica to turn and look at her, Spinelli glared right back.

"Lay off him" she repeated a little more sternly

"Excuse me but this isn't your business" Monica said surprised that Spinelli would butt into her conversation like that.

"Excuse me but it is. Menlo's my friend now stop spreading rumors about him" Spinelli said sternly but it only made things worse.

"I'm not spreading rumors-" Monica began but she was cut off.

"Yes you are. He doesn't sweat every time he talks now shut up about him or-" Spinelli began but she was interrupted by the shrill voice of her teacher.

"Girls! Do you have a problem?" She asked causing everyone in the class to stop their work and glare at the two arguing the girls.

"No" Monica said bitterly, probably upset that her former friend finally had the guts to tell her off.

When class ended Spinelli caught Monica outside

"Seriously if you do anything to hurt Menlo I'll hurt you" She said but Monica only rolled her eyes

"Is that a threat?" She asked wondering what Spinelli meant by hurt her, sure Monica knew that Spinelli defiantly could injure her in a fight but she was too good a person to actually go through with it.

"It's a warning, stay away from him" she said before walking away to prevent herself from doing something she would regret but behind her Monica smirked.

* * *

Mikey began talking with Becky in the hallway at the end of school. He doesn't have a problem with telling Vanessa how he feels about her but like all people when it comes to someone they really like he was afraid of what she would say. However he thought that maybe Becky could give him some insight, after all she is Vanessa's sister.

"I don't know I mean she's never said anything" Becky said when Mikey asked if she knew how Vanessa felt about him.

"But then again she never says anything, at least nothing like that" Becky continued and Mikey nodded, Vanessa was no longer the shy, quiet girl she used to be but when it came to expressing her feelings well she was still pretty closed off.

"But if you want my opinion I say go for it cause the way she is around you, the way she just becomes so instantly happy. That's something I never saw in her before." Becky finished causing Mikey to smile,

Here goes nothing.


	16. Boys and girls

"Man Teej that's rough" Vince said after hearing about Stephanie. He hadn't thought that things would work out between the two but he certainly didn't think that it would've ended like that.

"Ah it's alright" T.J. replied as the two continued playing their video game

"Besides I guess it was doomed to fail, Spinelli told me you guys were placing bets?" T.J. questioned a little annoyed that apparently his friends had no faith in his relationship with Stephanie but also a little amused by the fact that instead of trying to tell him this they just started gambling on it.

"Yeah we owe Gabe ten bucks" Vince replied with an irritated look on his face.

"No come on!" T.J. exclaimed as the two tried with everything they had to defeat the final boss level of their game but the monster soon pounded Vince's character to death

"Come on man it's just you!" Vince shouted biting his nails, they had been at this all day and finally they were about to win when the monster threw its hammer and T.J.'s character also vaporized

"NO!" Both boys shouted in anger as the **GAME OVER** sign appeared on screen.

* * *

Mikey found Vanessa working some kind of charity dinner at the community center. He had come here hoping to ask her to go out with him but he soon realized that this was not a good time. Gina had no rules against her volunteers talking while they worked, after all most of them were family so there was really nothing she could do to stop them even if she wanted to. But tonight things weren't exactly going as planned. The fryer in the kitchen of the center was broken so they couldn't make their French fries except for in a pan with oil on the stovetop which did not taste very good so instead they turned the potatoes for fries into mashed potatoes. One of the two ovens wasn't working and same went for the waitresses, Becky was sick which left Vanessa running around the crowded cafeteria alone as she tried to make up for lack of a second person when in reality they probably needed three. Not to mention that her Uncle Kenny's car broke down on the way there so they had to send someone to go get both him and the chicken he was bringing. So with the late start the volunteers were trying to get back on track but chicken took a while to cook and their system of figuring out how many plates they needed per table was an eighty-five year old woman standing at the door shouting it into the kitchen every time a group of people walked in, finally though Vanessa got so annoyed with having to ask the woman where she was going every time she brought an order out and of course the woman never wrote anything down so Vanessa ended up sending the eight year old son of one of the volunteers to the front door with a pen and paper. Anyways Mikey stood in the doorway of the kitchen trying to talk every time Vanessa came back in but that wasn't going very well

"Mikey can this please wait until later?" She asked as she grabbed a plate and left only to return again a minute later

"I'm just really busy right now" she continued once again leaving only to race back

"Is there any way I can help you?" He asked as she loaded four more plates onto her serving tray

"If you want to help me go grab a paper from Trent at the door and start waiting tables" she said on her way out and so Mikey did. He did exactly what she asked him to do and after about two hours things were finally winding down and an hour after that the dinner was officially over.

So as the cleanup was also winding down Mikey and Vanessa sat at one of the tables eating some of the left overs

"Thanks for the help" Vanessa said truly grateful he had shown up because this whole dinner was a train wreck but they had managed to pull it off and he was defiantly part of the reason.

"No problem" he said and it was quiet for another few seconds

"Oh what did you come here for anyways?" Vanessa asked suddenly remembering that when her friend had shown up standing in the doorway of the kitchen he had been trying to ask her something.

"Oh uh I was wondering if maybe you would want to go out sometime?" He asked but Vanessa didn't quite understand what he was asking.

"Go out like…?" She asked wondering what he meant, they hung out all the time but the way he was talking, it seemed different.

"Go out like as a date" Mikey clarified nervously. At first Vanessa was taken by surprise but then she smiled

"Sure, I'd love to" she answered.

* * *

Gus knocked on the door to Becky's house before going in anyways holding the To Go box in one hand; he knew that she was sick and probably wouldn't get up to answer the door.

"Becky?" He called after walking into the empty kitchen

"In here" the voice of his girlfriend called from the other room.

Gus went into the living room where he found Becky lying in her pajama's on the couch with a trashcan full of used tissues on the floor next to her.

"What are you doing here?" She asked surprised to see him or anyone here, her family had been gone all day because of the dinner so she had expected to be home alone all day.

"I stopped by the charity dinner and got you some food" he explained showing her the box; she smiled a small but sweet and grateful smile.

"Aw thanks, you didn't have to do that" she said as Gus set the box down on the coffee table.

"Well Mikey wanted to go down there anyways, besides your mom said they were probably going to be another hour or two" he said as Becky sat up.

"So what you left Mikey there?" She asked with a grin taking notice that Mikey wasn't around but Gus only laughed

"I had no choice, by the time Vanessa gave me your food he had started working" he told Becky who laughed upon hearing that, her sister and Mikey really would make a perfect couple. They were both way too eager to help out with that sort of work, not that she doesn't like doing the charity work it's just that her and Gina don't always get along whereas the woman seems to love Vanessa.

"Alright I've got to get going but I hope you feel better" Gus said giving Becky a kiss on the top her head before leaving.

"Bye" She said as he left.

* * *

"Mundy I'm fine walking home" Gretchen insisted for the second time as Mundy strapped on his helmet for his motorcycle.

The two had run into each other at the library and wasted more than enough time talking but when Gretchen said that she had to go Mundy offered to give her a ride, she knew she should've driven instead of walked.

"Come on Gretchen it's getting dark out, I've got a spare helmet" he offered thinking that maybe she wasn't accepting because she didn't have a helmet.

"And what if we get in an accident?" She asked but Mundy only rolled his eyes

"We're just as likely to get in an accident in a car if that's what you're worried about. I'm not going to force you to get on the bike but quit worrying, it's all you ever do" Mundy argued to which Gretchen scrunched up her nose.

"It is not!" She argued, Mundy began laughing at the normally composed girl's childish response

"Please, you're always worrying about getting this done on time and that done on time, you worry about college and graduating early. You spend every second preparing for the next big event and when it comes you don't take five minutes to enjoy it, you just start worrying for the next one." He said to which Gretchen gave him the stink eye.

With a snicker Mundy hoped on his bike

"Last chance Gretch, sky's looking black" He said.

Gretchen stood there for a moment glancing up at the sky, the sun was setting and it no doubt would be nightfall by the time she got home. With sigh and question in her mind as to why she was doing this she asked Mundy for the spare helmet and with an annoying yet victorious grin his tossed it her way and allowed her to climb on behind him.

"Alright hold onto me and you'll be fine" he instructed although his fear stricken friend already had her arms wrapped so tightly around him that he was surprised he could still breath.

Just to mess with her Mundy considered taking a back road to her house where he could go faster than the speed limit but he decided to leave that for some other time, the best way to show Gretchen that this was perfectly safe was to do exactly what he said he would.

So they took off and at first Gretchen let out a yelp in fear but as they went she found that she was actually starting to enjoy herself. For once, just for once, she wasn't worrying about anything. The wind flew against her face and she dared to smile when it did, it felt so good. She felt free, she spent all of her time studying and working, confined to her cage of responsibilities to her future but now that for the first time she had a glimpse of what freedom could look like, of the life she only now realized had been passing her by, she didn't want to let it go.

Arriving home however she found her father in the front yard and tried to swallow the lump forming in her throat, he was going to kill her.

"See now that wasn't so bad was it?" Mundy asked as she got off the motorcycle, apparently he didn't notice Mr. Grundler walking towards them.

"No I guess not" Gretchen replied quickly handing Mundy back his extra helmet while she tried to pretend that she also didn't notice her father.

"Hey Gretchen whose your friend?" A voice came from behind her; well pretending he wasn't there didn't work.

"Conrad Mundy sir, but I just go by Mundy" He introduced stepping off his bike for a second. Gretchen had to admit that it came sort of as a surprise to her when Mundy shook her father's hand, never once had she seen him so polite.

"He was just giving me a ride home dad" Gretchen said a little embarrassed and really afraid of her father's reaction to seeing his daughter come home on the back of a motorcycle with a kid he didn't even know.

"Yeah and I really should get going myself, my sisters are going to have a fit if I'm not home soon" he said to which Gretchen could only nod and wonder what he meant.

Mundy almost never talked about his parents but he had mentioned his sisters enough times. From what Gretchen had gathered he had two sisters, one older and one younger. In fact if Gretchen didn't know any better she would think that Mundy lived with his older sister for a guardian but she vaguely recalled him mentioning something about his father once, something about him having gone to visit his mother.

"Alright have a good night Mundy" Mr. Grundler said as the boy remounted his bike

"You to, bye Gretch" he said before speeding away.

After Mundy was gone Mr. Grundler looked down at his daughter who was waiting for the worst

"Seems like a good kid" was all he said before walking away.


	17. Protecting the ones you love

Spinelli thought that she was pretty clear when she warned Monica not to hurt Menlo but when she and Menlo were walking to class a few weeks later she found out that the message may not have been received.

"I think I dodged a bullet with Monica, she's been kind of mean ever since I asked her out" he said clearly oblivious not only to the conversation which had happened between Spinelli and Monica but also to how far Spinelli might be willing to go to protect him.

"Mean like how?" Spinelli asked suddenly concerned, she hadn't picked a fight at school in a LONG time but if Monica pushed this too far, she would.

Menlo shrugged, maybe judging by her tone he caught on that it was probably best not to get Spinelli involved or maybe he just didn't know how to explain it.

"I don't know she just gives me this evil glare at the beginning of class every day and she laughs every time I get a question wrong" he explained causing Spinelli to nod as she considered telling her German teacher to just send her down to the office at the beginning of class because whether it be physical or verbal, she was going to start a fight.

* * *

Today was the science fair and of course Gretchen entered. Her experiment was a simple one about studying the different DNA patterns in different types of rabbits; she chose this because she had two pet rabbits at home so when she was stumped for an idea she went to feed them and thought hey maybe this could work. It actually was a good entry but unfortunately for Gretchen she had been assigned to the table next to Jeffery Baker who was doing something with chemicals, granted only a small amount of something but it still smelt.

Anyways the fair had been going on for a little over an hour when Mundy came walking up to Gretchen's table.

"Hey" he said with that devilish grin which Gretchen found so attractive.

"Hey" she returned and she could feel her face lighting up but she didn't care, there was something about Mundy's carefree personality that was contagious. She knew that he shouldn't be here, she knew without even asking that he had cut class to come here but strangely she didn't find herself disapproving.

"Aren't you usually in history right now?" She asked even though she knew the answer but she loved the reaction he gave every time she pointed out to him that he was breaking some kind of rule, his grin began to look just a bit more evil but at the same time playful and he would roll his eyes.

"Won't surprise anyone if I cut class, besides with the science fair going on and half the kids missing attendance papers will be a mess. Today they might not even notice" he grinned causing Gretchen to roll her eyes; he probably wasn't going back at all today.

"So what's this on anyways?" Mundy asked as Gretchen put some of her papers in a pile.

"I'm doing a study on identifying the different patterns of DNA in rabbits" she told him as he picked up one of her DNA models and fooled around with it in his hands.

Gretchen rolled her eyes but let it go, she knew that he wasn't some little kid who was going to take it apart and she continued with her work. Another fifteen minutes passed, Mundy walked around the fair a little more but returned back to his friends table and hung around there for a few more minutes, and it was a good thing that he did.

Jeffery's chemicals began to smell worse than before, as if they were burning. Gretchen looked over at the source of the awful smell only to see that Jeffery was coughing as he desperately tried to put out a fire. She suddenly flashed back to the Fourth of July two years ago, everything happened so fast and yet so slowly. But this time the flying trail of fire was coming for her. Jeffery was trying to put out the fire when something, Gretchen didn't see what but something solid ignited and at lightning speed came shooting at her. She was frozen by fear waiting for the fire and the chemical to sear through her skin but there was a crash and the weight of something heavier than her tackling her to the ground.

Gretchen opened her eyes not only to hear the panic going on in the gym but to see Mundy rolling himself off of her. The two knelt behind the table Mundy had knocked over when he jumped over it. The two caught their breath and although they knew that people were rushing over to the escalating fire to put it out to them it was like they were in a place that had separated from time. To each one the only thing that mattered was the condition of the other.

"Are you ok?" Mundy finally asked and Gretchen nodded

"Yeah, thanks." She said but she couldn't help it when her gaze fell to Mundy's burned arm, it made the gash Rachel had received two years ago look like a paper cut.

"You need to go to the hospital" She said as they stood up but Mundy shook his head stubbornly as he bit back the intense and burning pain which he was just now beginning to feel.

"I'll be fine" he tried to tell her but as one would imagine he lost that argument.

* * *

Spinelli waited until the end of German class, she didn't want to start something in the middle of class again. But once class ended she pulled Monica aside in the hallway before she could get away.

"I thought I told you to leave Menlo alone" She spat at the girl, her blood and adrenalin fueled by anger.

"You did but what are you going to do about it?" Monica questioned with a smirk on her face.

"You're too smart to hit me, too nice to start any drama about me and have too much self-respect to rat me out so what are you going to do?" She taunted. She had her old friend exactly where she wanted her, she knew that Spinelli was strong enough to hurt her but at the same time she was also strong enough not to. She couldn't do anything.

Spinelli on the other hand wanted to shove the girl through a wall, but she wouldn't. Monica was right; she could never allow herself to hurt even a low life like her, physically or emotionally.

"You know what you're right. I can't hit you because I don't want to get suspended, I can't start something about you because I know it'll just come back to bite me in the butt and what am I going to say if I report you, that you're being mean to Menlo?" Spinelli asked knowing that although option three was her best choice nothing would get done, even if someone did speak to Monica about it she wasn't the type of person to stop. She was the type of person to just get worse.

"But if you're only trying to bother me then leave Menlo out of it" Spinelli demanded, her voice growing surprisingly calmer.

"And if I don't?" Monica demanded with an amused face but Spinelli only sighed

"Then you'll just give me one more reason to believe that there is absolutely nothing inside you" she said before turning and walking away.

* * *

It was after school during drama rehearsal. Unfortunately for everyone Ms. Finster had taken over as director. Now this year Vanessa actually had a pretty decent part but with one small catch, the character was blind. Now normally that wouldn't be an issue but Finster wanted her to understand what it's like to actually be blind so starting today she was wearing a blindfold on stage and hopefully by show night at the end of the year she would move the way a blind person would.

"She is taking this way to seriously" Vanessa muttered as she stood backstage tying her blindfold.

"Maybe you should tell her you don't want to do it" Mikey suggested but his girlfriend only shrugged

"Eh I'll be fine" she said and two minutes later she heard her cue so she went out.

The idea of preforming while wearing a blindfold may not sound hard but when you actually give it a try it's a whole different thing. Vanessa's sight was gone and she couldn't even see the outlines of the others on the stage. In that moment she became grateful that when she was a kid she had been so fascinated with the idea of fine tuning your senses. She listened attentively to everything around her, every voice, every foot step, everything.

She knew she had to go to the front left-center of the stage and in her mind she tried to create a mental picture of the scene she was standing in. Three other kids on stage, all standing in the dead center

She hoped that Finster wouldn't yell at her for it when she shuffled her first step forward, trying to get a feel for where she was. Finally she both felt and heard it under her shoe, the one tiny spot on this side of the stage where the wax was beginning to peel away. In scuffed differently and so it let the now blind girl know exactly where she was.

_Five steps forward and four steps towards the center_

She had counted yesterday

So counting in her mind Vanessa walked at her normal pace, Finster would probably have a fit that she didn't look blind in the way she walked but she was blind so she could argue. But she must have miscounted the day before or maybe she took one stride just a bit too long, she wasn't sure but she ended up closer to the edge of the stage than she realized. After her fifth step forward she didn't feel the edge of the stage but on her third step towards the center the side of her foot slipped over the edge of the stage and she felt herself fall that way.

She let out a surprised and frightened shriek when all at once she heard Becky call her name and she also heard footsteps rushing towards her. Without realizing it she stuck her arms out in front of her and not even sure of how she knew to do it she latched onto an arm she wasn't positive was there and pressed her feet against the side of the stage. Both Vanessa and Becky let out a breath as each realized what had just happened or rather what hadn't happened. Becky caught her sister, she didn't fall and although she was wearing a blindfold Becky could've sworn that she saw her fear stricken eyes staring back at her as her mind processed the fact that she was alright. Becky glanced around trying to figure out a way to get Vanessa up, she couldn't move a hand to remove her blindfold and see but that didn't really matter. The stage was just a little too high up for her to jump down to the floor, at least not blindfolded. But she had fallen too far to be pulled back up. As she tried to think she noticed Mikey hurrying from behind the curtains and off to the base of the stage. Thankful for the solution Becky knew her sister was listening to the footsteps of her boyfriend and was mentally tracking where he was going so she didn't bother telling Vanessa that she was going to let her go, and Vanessa having heard not only Mikey's footsteps but also his voice saying that he was coming it didn't alarm her when she felt his arms snake their way around her waist and her sister released her grip. Once she was on the ground Vanessa pulled her blindfold off

"Thanks guys" she breathed knowing how badly that could've ended.

* * *

Gretchen went to Mundy's house after school to make sure that he was ok. He had been taken to the hospital after the incident, although it was against his will. But she called his house to see where he was and when he answered well that answered her question. Mundy lived on the opposite side of town as her and the front yard of his house was cluttered with a little kid's playhouse, a small plastic slide and a few squirt guns which clearly hadn't been picked up at the end of summer. She knocked on the door only to hear a female voice call that the door was open so she went inside.

"Hello?" She asked upon entering the house, a girl who was probably in her early twenties came walking in from the kitchen

"Hi um I came to see if Mundy was alright" Gretchen began awkwardly as the girl looked at her a little confused, probably just wondering who she was.

"You must be Gretchen?" The girl asked cracking a smile and Gretchen nodded.

"He's up in his room, are you ok? Conrad told me what happened" She explained after answering and then asking her own question.

"I'm fine. Thanks to him" Gretchen said and the older girl's smile seemed to become more of a sweet one rather than the sort of sarcastic one she had just a second ago.

"Well his rooms the first one on the right, oh I'm his sister Faith by the way" she introduced herself and Gretchen once again nodded before heading up the stairs leaving Faith where she was, thinking to herself.

_That kid used to be such a nightmare_

* * *

Upstairs Gretchen found Mundy sitting on his bed in a room that was no bigger than a large closet. It was his bed, a dresser, a stand with a TV on it and a little bit of floor space. He was watching the TV when he looked up to see her standing in the doorway, he arm was completely bandaged.

"Gretchen what are you doing here?" He asked, not in a mean way but he was just confused to see her.

"I wanted to make sure you were ok" Gretchen explained taking half a step into the room, her friend only shrugged.

"I'm fine I guess. It hurts a little but nothing that won't heal" he said and just then a voice interrupted them

"I'm going to pick up Jenny from school, be right back!" Faith's voice called up the stairs

"Ok!" Mundy called back before they heard the front door closing.

"Jenny's my little sister" he quickly explained to Gretchen who nodded

"Faith seems nice" she said not really sure of what else to say.

A smile made its way to Mundy's face

"I thought she was going to kill me when she got the call that I was at the hospital. They wouldn't release me myself they needed someone to come and get me because I'm not eighteen yet. Growing up every time I stole or cut class, even now when she finds out I've cut class, she would look at me with this look of total disgust and disappointment." He began to explain thinking back to those days when they were kids.

"I sort of grew out of a lot of that stuff so I haven't gotten that look in a while, but today I thought without a doubt I would get that look again but when I told her what happened, she didn't even care that I had been cutting class. Or that she had to leave work early to come get me, she said good job" he said as the smile on his face grew a little bit bigger.

"At first I couldn't believe she wasn't mad and when I told her that she told that never in her life has she been more proud of me" He said beaming and it made Gretchen smile. She could understand with the way Mundy used to be how his sister had normally felt disappointment in him so to hear what he did today, that he had taken the hit when it should've been someone else, she could see why Faith would be proud.


	18. Bitter? Sweet? Or somewhere in between?

"So do you think the guys are going to forget our birthday?" Becky joked as she and Vanessa walked to their bus stop on one of the first warm days of spring, not that it stopped Vanessa from wearing her favorite sweatshirt.

Vanessa laughed "Maybe, their best friends so hopefully one will remember and remind the other" she answered doubting that Mikey would forget her birthday; he isn't the type to forget something like that.

"I hope so, I don't think Gus even knows" Becky said and Vanessa rolled her eyes

"Well if you never told him then it doesn't count as forgetting" She teased as the two arrived at the street corner bus stop.

"Oh sorry it's not like I had two and a half years to inform him" Becky mocked playfully and Vanessa stuck her tongue out.

Just then they saw the bus coming

"Where's Tyler?" Becky said looking around for the boy down the street who was normally here.

"Take a guess" Vanessa muttered amused upon seeing the figure of a sprinting teenager far behind the bus

"Think he'll make it?" Becky asked equally as amused as her sister

"Sure, if he's wearing rocket shoes" Vanessa answered sarcastically.

* * *

It was a relatively normal day at the lunch table between Spinelli, T.J., Gabe and Collin or at least it was until the bell to end lunch rang.

"Ugh Algebra" Spinelli groaned at the thought of going to her least favorite subject, but like the others she rose from her seat at the table and slung her backpack over her shoulder.

"I'll walk you to class" Collin said as if it were something he did every day, or had done at all before

Spinelli gave him a confused look

"Isn't your class on the first floor?" She questioned him; her Algebra class was up on the third floor, WAY out of Collin's path.

"Yeah so?" He asked so with no reason to stop him Spinelli gave in

"Alright" she said as they left, the two other boys still standing there.

"Did he just?" T.J. began to ask trying to process what had just happened.

"I think he did, and he knows you like her. Not cool man, not cool" Gabe answered.

T.J. briefly gave him a defensive glare but then realized it was useless. Everyone knew that he liked Spinelli in fact sometimes he thought even she knew. But apparently that didn't matter to Collin and if Spinelli does know then she obviously doesn't return the feelings. Within one minute T.J. went from having a pretty good day to feeling like he had just been punched in the stomach.

* * *

Vanessa sat down in her chair at lunch and dug through her backpack for her brown paper bag. She was the first one to the table as usual but her friends would soon be here, she was lucky and had a class right across the hall while her friends were mostly on the second floor. However that did mean she had to weave her way through the crowd of people leaving the cafeteria from the previous lunch. Anyways she had just found her lunch and pulled it out of her backpack when she felt a hand on top of her head purposely messing up her hair.

"Mikey" she playfully whined as he took the empty seat next to her

"How'd you know it was me?" He asked holding a hand behind his back

"Some guys cover their girlfriend's eyes, you do that" she giggled and with a smile Mikey rolled his eyes, she knew him all too well.

"Now what are you doing here? Don't you have class?" Vanessa asked confused, Mikey NEVER skipped class.

"I'm going but I had to give you this first" he said taking his hand out from behind his back revealing that he was holding a chocolate cupcake with white frosting, her favorite.

"Happy birthday!" He said with a smile as she took the cupcake and smiled

"Aw thank you" she said giving him a kiss on the cheek.

When she did so she was thankful that they were sitting down, it made it easier. Vanessa had to admit that she and Mikey must look hilarious, after all the only thing funnier than a girl being taller than her boyfriend is what they have, a five foot four girl trying to kiss her six foot six boyfriend. For that reason Vanessa normally waited for Mikey to kiss her and usually she got it on the top of her head but hey that was their relationship.

* * *

Mundy hated school his whole life, hated it! He was never any good at it and then when those nut-jobs in the special education department finally figured out he had some sort of learning disability he thought it may as well have been a death sentence. They stuck him in those special education classes for more than half of his subjects, not the ones for the kids with severe problems but the ones for kids like him. Actually he didn't mind some of them, most of the kids had driven the teachers past their breaking points years ago and they didn't care what went on anymore. Some however hadn't been pushed passed their breaking point and they could be pretty strict. He'd complained about it for about half of seventh grade until Faith had enough with it and reminded him that she had the same type of problems and had done her time in those classes. She kept reminding him that if he worked hard enough he could get out, she did.

But alas he never managed to get out and now he had been called down to his counselor's office, normally he'd assume it was just more junk about college but only his friends from special education said that they had been called down and it wasn't to be nagged about college, or not entirely anyways.

They said that they were being given a review of how they had improved throughout high school and how they should continue that in college. So basically for all who managed to reach graduation it was a congratulations and for the other's it was being yelled at for flunking senior year. Mundy had to admit that he was nervous; he knew that he was really on the fence when it came to passing or failing. Almost everyone expected him to fail including himself but so far he had managed to pass each grade by the skin of his teeth and a few weeks in summer school. But this year summer school wasn't a choice; if he didn't pass he wouldn't graduate.

Taking a deep breath he knocked on the door of Mrs. Gilmore's office before opening the door

"You wanted to see me?" He asked the older woman sitting at her desk.

Mrs. Gilmore was probably in her early sixties and had short, curly, light graying blond hair and normally wore a yellow dress or yellow sweater or something that combined with her overly cheerful personality had caused most kids to nickname her Mrs. Sunshine.

At first Mundy had been a little surprise to be called to her office, he wasn't assigned to her for a counselor. But it wasn't the first time a kid had been sent to a counselor they weren't assigned to and the one he was assigned to could be a real jerk so he couldn't complain.

"Yes have a seat" She said gesturing to the chair on the opposite side of her desk so he sat down on the very edge, ready to bolt the instant she let him go.

Mrs. Gilmore laughed just a tiny bit

"You know your sister used to do that to, I was always afraid she was going to fall out of the chair" she mused as it dawned on Mundy that he may not have been assigned to Mrs. Gilmore but Faith had been.

Of course he knew that Faith had been a teacher's pet in high school, she always worked her butt off and never complained because she wanted to get herself out of the special classes. Well clearly Mrs. Gilmore hadn't looked at his file because he was nothing like his sister.

But Faith never had a reason to be ready to run; she always passed with flying colors. But Mundy, he knew that he was in danger of failing and he had reason to run out of here.

She took out a manila folder, ok so she had the file.

"Now Conrad I've been going over your grades and every year you just barely make it to the next one" she began but Mundy only rolled his eyes, he already knew that.

"Look I'm going into the Marines after graduation, I got accepted so if I failed it doesn't make a difference" he defended knowing it had been a mistake. If he passed she'd congratulate him but if he failed she'd spend the next twenty minutes lecturing him on why dropping out of high school to join the marines wasn't a great idea.

Mrs. Gilmore put down the file and looked at him with a wide grin

"Conrad that's great! Congratulations! Anyways I don't know why you would think you failed, I called you down here to congratulate you on pulling up your grades this year" she explained handing him the file so he could see for himself.

He couldn't believe it. He had come just two points short of honor roll  
"Was it the Marines that made you get your grades up?" Mrs. Gilmore asked with a smile but Mundy only cracked a small grin as he thought about it, he hadn't realized how much this year he had pulled his grades up but he knew the reason, after all there was only one thing it could be.

"No, it was a friend" that was all he said but strangely his happy feeling faded when the last word escaped his mouth. Suddenly he realized that in eight weeks he'd be leaving and if he didn't come back, did he really want to leave with Gretchen never being anything more than a friend?

* * *

Ancient history was the one class which Gus and Becky had together so of course when it turned out to be a teacher who didn't care where you sat they had sat next to each other. So the class went on like any other day and afterwards Gus walked with Becky to her locker, gave her a kiss and then went off to his next class. Becky sighed when he left, she should've told him when her birthday was a long time ago and now he had no idea. But she couldn't be mad, after all he didn't know. So she opened up her backpack in order to put her history book in her locker but when she reached for it to her surprise resting on top of the book inside of her bag was small box from a jewelry store with a sticky note on the top

_Vanessa told me a week ago, happy birthday, I love you. Love Gus_

Becky's face lit up in a smile, he must have slipped it into her backpack during class. She opened the box to find that inside was a necklace. A silver chain with a silver heart in the middle of it, quickly Becky zipped her backpack closed and took the necklace from the box trying put it around her neck before she was late for her next class, however the clasp was impossible to fasten without looking so she ended up asking a friend for help but being late to her next class was worth it.

* * *

T.J. decided to confront Collin, the time he chose do to this however was a relatively poor choice. He chose to do it in the middle of science class since they had a sub so obviously no work was being done. However Spinelli was also in the class with them.

"So what was that after lunch?" T.J. asked casually, his better judgment had warned him not to start this conversation in front of Spinelli but he wanted to get this settled today.

"What was what?" Collin asked so trying to make it come off as funny T.J. pointed to his friends

"You walking her to class" he clarified, now that got Spinelli's attention.

"Nothing just trying to be nice" Collin shrugged.

Ok yes secretly Collin liked Spinelli. He knew that she was unofficially T.J.'s girl but he couldn't help it. She was the coolest girl he had ever met, she never got all dramatic over stupid things like some girls did but even though she knew they thought of her as one of the guys she respected when they didn't invite her along on some weekend plans because they wanted it to be just the guys. That one really amazed Collin; he had once asked her if she really didn't mind it and she told him that she honestly understood that they needed their time and to be honest it gave her some time to herself or she'd hang out with Joslyn if she was around.

"Anyways what do you care?" Spinelli demanded annoyed T.J. butting his nose into something that was so clearly not his business. Normally she would've just let this one slide because she didn't like Collin as anything more than a friend but it was starting to seem like every time a guy got close to her T.J. had a problem with it.

Of course a part of her liked that, she liked T.J. and although everyone told her that he liked her that was defiantly confirmation of it. But god she wished he would just make his move already, in fact arguing over stuff like this was only half an argument. The other half was her trying to push him into making a move.

T.J. didn't answer; he didn't have an answer he could give. He was clueless to Spinelli's feelings and didn't want to risk throwing away their lifelong friendship.

"I don't it's just you know I didn't know you two were such good friends" he stuttered but both of his friends just stared at him, both of them knowing what he was trying so hard not to say. One of them wishing he would say it.

"We've been friends since freshman year" Spinelli reminded him

"I know but not like… you know… friends don't walk just friends to class" T.J. continued to stutter but that only made things with Spinelli worse

"You walk me to class all the time!" She exclaimed, at this point Collin had the sense to just stay out of it.

"Yeah when I'm going that way" T.J. defended but it was very little use

"I don't care, what's the difference between me walking with you and me walking with him?" Spinelli demanded, now she was growing genuinely angry and if T.J. didn't choose his next answer carefully he would be in a world of trouble.

"The difference is that you and I have been friends since before preschool-" T.J. began but the girl he should probably be afraid of at this point cut him off

"So what that means I have to inform you every time I start hanging out with someone?" She questioned as Collin glanced around the class, thank god everyone else was caught up in their own conversations.

"Of course not! But it would be nice if you would inform me when you start going out with one of my friends!" T.J. exclaimed

"What?" Collin asked as he was suddenly yanked back into the argument

"Excuse me but Collin and me are not dating!" Spinelli argued hoping she hadn't hurt Collin's feelings but she doubted she had, he knew they weren't together.

"Well how would I know? You wouldn't tell me if you were!" T.J. said out of pure desperation to win the downhill fight.

"Ugh! You are worse than my brother!" Spinelli nearly shouted as she stood up, marched over to the teacher's desk, grabbed the bathroom pass and walked out of the class.

For a moment everyone in the class stared at the two boys who now wanted nothing more than to just disappear

"Is she coming back?" The sub asked and slowly T.J. nodded

"She left her stuff" he answered, she'd be back and when she came he would be a dead man.


	19. Goodbyes are never easy

It was the night before graduation. Mundy had crawled out of his bedroom window and onto his roof to watch the headlights of the cars as they zoomed by on the busy street below.

"You alright kid?" A friendly voice asked from behind him. Mundy looked over his shoulder to see Faith crawling through the window to join him

"You're not supposed to be in my room" He joked and Faith knew he wasn't really upset so she giggled as she sat down next to her brother.

"Normally I respect that but I had to leave some clothes on your bed" she explained and Mundy nodded, though he hated hearing that.

Ever since they lost their mom, and by lost Mundy meant their parent's divorce and their mother's wish to never see her children again (sadly she did say that). Faith had been the one who looked after her siblings. Obviously they still have their dad but he has to work a lot and although he understood sometimes Mundy just hated to see Faith folding the clothes or cooking or just doing anything she shouldn't have to do, things which their mother should be around to take care of.

"Now come on your friends invited you to a party and you chose to hang here on the roof?" Faith questioned knowing that it was not in her younger brother's nature to pass up a party.

"Didn't feel like going out tonight" Mundy said with a shrug

"Well I'm not going to make you go but can I ask what's bugging you?" She questioned.

That's what Mundy loved about Faith, she didn't pry. She was always concerned when she sensed something was wrong and she would go and ask you but if you didn't feel like telling her she wouldn't make you. But tonight Mundy did want to tell her

"Just confused" he said not really sure how to explain what he truly wanted to say.

"Everyone is before they graduate" she reassured him but he only sighed

"I've been looking forward to leaving for my whole life. There was never anything for me here and after mom left at first I just wanted to go even sooner, I would be one less person for you to worry about" Mundy began to explain and he could see that it hurt his sister to hear that he had once thought she saw him as a nuisance.

"But then you didn't go to college and when dad had to get a second job you were always the one bringing Jenny and me places and making sure we ate and doing the laundry and over the years you've asked me to help you out with a few things and then I started getting closer with Gretchen" Mundy began rambling as a small understanding smile appeared on his sister's face.

"You spent so long waiting to leave and now that you're going you feel like there's stuff to stay for" she said summing up what her brother was trying to say, she knew the feeling.

She had considered leaving after high school and her father told her that she could, that the family would be ok without her.

"How did you decide?" Mundy asked and Faith's face became soft and reminiscent

"I thought about leaving but I never really wanted it. But Conrad I know you, I know that you've always wanted it" she said to him but he only sighed

"What about everything I'm leaving behind?" he asked causing Faith to sigh

"If things don't work out you'll always have a place here, I can guarantee you that. But you have to weigh the decision, you can either leave this life or you can keep it. But if you keep it you'll have to live wondering what could've happened if you left" Faith told him. She regretted nothing about her decision, she had never really wanted to leave this place but she knew that her brother did.

Mundy cracked a joking smile "you really want me gone don't you?" He asked sarcastically and in response Faith only giggled.

"Hey once you're gone I can have my own room" she joked but it was true, once Conrad left she was done sharing a room with her seven year old sister.

"Seriously though it's your choice" she reminded him before ruffling his hair and crawling back into the house.

Once she was gone Mundy looked back out at the street, he knew Faith was right. She had wanted to stay, to build her future in the same place as her past. She was perfectly content with her life but he wanted something more, there was only one thing left to do.

* * *

Vince wasn't particularly close to his grandmother and so when he got the news that she was dead he didn't get all that upset over it. His entire family knew that she was sick and wouldn't get any better so it wasn't as if it came as a surprise to him. The hardest part about it though was going to her funeral.

His entire family was there at the funeral home and as he was walking from a general gathering room to the room with the casket inside he found his seven year old cousin Lilly standing in the doorway.

"Hey Lilly" he greeted her in sort of a sad tone but who could help that?

The little girl looked up at her older cousin, her big brown eyes looking like those of a whimpering puppy.

"Hi" she muttered as Vince's parents went into the next room but he stood there with his little cousin.

"Are you going in?" He asked her but Lilly shook her head

"No dead people scare me, even grandma" she admitted seeming almost ashamed to admit that she knew looking at her own grandmother's body would give her nightmares.

Vince sighed as he glanced into the next room, poor Lilly was old enough to understand that her grandma was dead but not yet old enough to look at the deceased woman and be unfazed by it.

Peering into the room Vince saw that most of the seats were already full and more people would be coming anyways

"I'll stand out here with you" he said to Lilly and so during the service he stood out there in the doorway with his little cousin standing in front of him leaning her head into his stomach.

As the younger sibling Vince didn't have much experience with young children but the way she leaned into him, the way she turned her head and hid her face against his stomach as she tried not to cry he couldn't help but place one hand on her back and the other on the back of her head. The little girl wrapped her arms around Vince's waist as she let go of her tears and as Vince listened to the service in the next room he closed his eyes and gripped his cousin just a little tighter.

* * *

Mundy knew that he'd be able to find Gretchen at the library that Saturday after graduation and didn't waste time when it came to teasing her about it.

"You sure know how to spend a weekend" He mocked with a grin when he saw her sitting at a table reading

"Hey" she said with a smile looking up from her book, ordinarily she would snap some kind of snarky comment back at him but he had graduated last night and was leaving in two weeks for boot camp. He should be home either packing or celebrating with his family so if he had gone through the trouble to track her down here he must have a reason.

Nervously Mundy took a seat in the vacant chair across from her

"Look um I already told you that for me the next two weeks are going to be a little hectic and I probably won't see much of you" He started to explain awkwardly but Gretchen only nodded understandingly, he had a lot to do.

"But just in case you know I don't see you again before I go I wanted to give you this" he said placing what looked like a piece of junk on the table.

It was nothing more than a souvenir pin he picked up at the Hershey store on a trip to New York City but he had a reason for giving something which actually was meaningless to someone who meant so much to him.

"Look I know it's just a junk pin but I bought this when I was twelve and I keep losing but somehow every time no matter where I lose it it somehow finds its way back to me" he began to explain as Gretchen took the pin. It was weird and it was stupid but strangely it was the only way through which he could truly believe that he would see her again.

"Just hold onto it alright?" He asked Gretchen who nodded and slipped the pin into her pocket

"I will" she promised.

The next time she saw Mundy was at his goodbye party the night before he left and as she left the party her heart fluttered as he kissed her goodbye.


	20. Guy time and girl time

With Mundy being gone Gretchen realized just how much of an effect he had had on her. She no longer spent her summer days reading or preparing for college (which considering she would be a senior this coming school year she probably should have) but instead she just wanted to do the one thing Mundy had spent all his life doing, something exciting.

She wasn't exactly looking to put her life in danger but Mundy had told her so many stories of things he had done and brought her on his motorcycle so many times that she discovered maybe a little too late how much she liked the rush of adrenalin as her stomach flipped with both fear and excitement at the same time.

Anyways she had called her friend Joslyn thinking she might know of something they could do but Joslyn had instead invited her along on a sleepover with herself and Spinelli at Spinelli's friend Vanessa's house. It had been a long time since Gretchen and Spinelli talked and she had to admit that it was nice to catch up with the girl, who apparently had only become friends with Vanessa because she had once again become friendly with Mikey who Vanessa was dating. Anyways the girls had apparently been trying to decide whose house to have the sleepover at and decided on Vanessa and Becky's house when Gretchen called Joslyn asking if she knew of anything to do that would be exciting, on the other end of the phone Joslyn had been grinning evilly.

When they got to Vanessa and Becky's house Gretchen was dragged by the other girls out to the backyard where maybe ten feet up in one tree was a platform with a rope ladder leading up to it. A slanted rope with a bar hanging from it was strung from the tree and was connected maybe five feet up on another tree.

"So what you do is climb up the ladder onto the platform grab the handlebar then jump" Vanessa explained clearly amused by Gretchen's fearful face.

"Is it safe?" Gretchen asked truly wondering, it was obvious that this was old and had just been thrown together one day.

Vanessa shrugged "I don't know maybe" she answered as her sister joined them.

"It's not" Becky said flatly causing Vanessa to roll her eyes

"It hasn't snapped yet has it?" She asked annoyed but Becky didn't say anything

"Ugh I'll show you" Vanessa said knowing she had not yet won the argument and nobody would dare try the contraption unless somebody was willing to prove its safety.

So she climbed up there and untied the string which held the bar at the platform and also served as their means of getting it back up. Gripping the wooden bar she looked down in slight fear, it wasn't that high and even if it was she had no fear of heights. But the last time she used this homemade zip line of theirs she had actually fallen off. The rope hadn't snapped her grip had just slipped and she knew it wouldn't happen again but still the fear crept its way into her mind.

Taking a breath Vanessa closed her eyes and jumped.

She flew down the line and landed at the end with a thud before brushing the splinters of wood off her hands.

"See?" She said as she took the string and began pulling the bar back up

"Is anybody else going?" She questioned and Gretchen could feel the other girls looking at her.

They weren't trying to force her into doing it but she was the one who said she wanted to so against her better judgment she climbed up the rope ladder, which was looking like it would snap before the homemade zip line did, and copied Vanessa's actions. Ten feet up wasn't all that high but it was high enough to get hurt if she fell or the rope snapped though Vanessa claimed that hadn't become an issue yet. But Gretchen closed her eyes; all she needed was one crazy piece of her mind to overtake her legs just for second long enough for her to jump and after a few seconds which seemed to pass slowly that was exactly what happened.

* * *

Meanwhile T.J. and Vince were spending their day and the next few weeks working at the kids sport camp as counselors for the basketball kids.

"Ok so explain it to me again why you're upset?" Vince asked during the lunch break as he and T.J. discussed something which had happened earlier that morning

"I don't know" T.J. sighed in confusion as he picked at his baked beans

"Neither do I, you were talking to Ashley just like you've been doing everyday so far this summer but today you ended up asking her out, she said yes and now you regret it?" Vince reminded him trying to understand why the guy was upset that he had a date with one of the cheerleading counselors.

"I didn't mean to ask her out" T.J. told him defensively, Vince cocked an eyebrow

"So what you don't like her?" He asked thinking that he was beginning to understand but sadly that was not the case.

"I don't know I mean she's a great girl. She's fun and pretty and smart but I don't know she just doesn't seem like my type" T.J. tried to explain but really he wasn't even sure what the problem was, actually that's a lie. He knew exactly what his problem was but he would never dare admit it.

"What is your type, a pretty face who cheats?" Vince asked sarcastically but T.J. glared at him angrily

"Sorry" Vince apologized with a weak chuckle making a mental note that it's still a little too soon to tease him about Stephanie.

"No it's just, come on Vince you know" T.J. said pleading for his friend to stop playing dumb and actually help him figure something out.

"Know what, that you sort of like Ashley but at the same time you're still stuck on Spinelli just like you have been since third grade?" Vince asked teasingly but T.J. only groaned

"Teej you've been chasing the same girl for almost nine years, either make a move or move on" Vince encouraged starting to get annoyed with the relationship his two best friends had found themselves in.

It was so annoying, T.J. likes Spinelli and Spinelli likes T.J., Spinelli knows that T.J. likes her and T.J. knows that Spinelli likes him (either that or neither one of them listen every time somebody says something) but neither of them will do anything about it! It made Vince want to scream in frustration.

"I guess" T.J. muttered not any less confused but tired of the conversation.

* * *

When nighttime rolled around it effectively moved the girl's sleepover indoors to the living room. Vanessa was pleasantly surprised by how much she was enjoying the night. At first she didn't really think that the sleepover would be her thing but it had been Becky's idea. Most of her friends were on a local gymnastics team and were out of town for a meet leaving her at her house board with just her sister who although could sometimes could be her best friend the two girls could almost never decide to do something together if it were to be just the two of them. So they decided to find what friends were left in town and have them over, it was working out better than anyone thought. Out of the five girls the only two who really knew each other really well were Becky and Vanessa and only because they're sisters. Spinelli had been hesitant to come at first because she had never really slept over a friend's house before. She had slept over Gretchen's once or twice in elementary school but that had been forever ago. Monica would never invite her to sleepovers and Joslyn who a few years ago had been invited to those said that they were nowhere near as fun as this.

And it was true. For five girls who for the most part were just getting to know each other they clicked as though they had been friends for years. When they decided to turn on the TV Spinelli and Vanessa lost the vote in three against two for putting on some fashion design show but the two tomboys soon discovered that they could get enjoyment from mocking everything on the screen, and really most of it was mocking gold. Gretchen decided to talk to Becky about Mundy; after all she would be in the same situation next year and Gretchen thought that maybe she could help, apparently she couldn't but she was interested in hearing about how Mundy's leaving had affected both Gretchen and his family.

"Sounds like your boyfriend left a pretty messed up life" Joslyn said sadly feeling sorry that anyone would have to go through what Mundy apparently had.

Gretchen shrugged debating on whether or not to say that Mundy isn't her boyfriend but then again, is he? With the way they had left things she isn't to sure what they are.

"I don't know, his dad and sisters are trying to figure out a daily schedule without him but they're still working on it" she told her friends.

She still talked to Mundy's sisters and Faith had told her how out of order things got when he left. Their dad still works two jobs and still does as much as he can around the house but Faith is now trying to pick up most of Mundy's chores.

"Not to be rude but do you guys really need to be so depressing?" Spinelli chimed in a few moments after Gretchen had finished saying how Mundy's family was adjusting and the conversation had turned to Becky worrying about missing Gus when he left after their graduation.

"Yeah come on Beck you've still got one more year with the guy before he leaves and it's not like he won't come back. Gus will be fine, same as Mundy" Vanessa assured her sister adding the last part quickly to try and reassure Gretchen that her boyfriend will come back to her.

"You know Gus is your friend, aren't you going to worry about him when he goes?" Becky asked her sister smugly wanting to hear her response. Vanessa never had any real friends before Mikey and Gus so she acted as if she were used to people entering her life only to leave, which to be fair was more or less true. So this had left her with no one to worry much about

Vanessa took a sip of her soda before answering "when he goes of course I'll be worried, now not so much" she responded, she preferred to wait until Gus was actually in danger to worry about him.

"Besides at least you have a boyfriend to worry about" Joslyn commented jokingly but still with just the slightest hint of bitterness in her voice but it got a laugh from each of the other girls.

"She has a point" Spinelli agreed as she was in the same boat as Joslyn

"Hey what about you and T.J., doesn't he have a thing for you?" Vanessa questioned but Spinelli only huffed in response

"I don't know, he acts like he does but then he's always telling me about some girl he likes and the guys are saying it's just to make me jealous so I don't know" she explained probably sounding pathetic considering she was still waiting around for him but she didn't mind.

"Well if it makes you feel any better nobody understands anything about any guy" Joslyn said causing the other's to laugh because it was so true, no matter how much time any of them spent with boys none of them could even begin to understand them.


	21. The worst first day of school

The first day of senior year and the biggest bomb that could've been dropped on the school was dropped first thing in the morning, Principal Roberts had retired. Now a lot of people saw that coming but what they didn't see coming was the man they got as a replacement, the one and only Principal Prickly.

"Man first Finster now Prickly it's like being sent back to Third Street!" T.J. complained as he and Vince walked through the halls that first day.

"Yeah and it's not even first period yet, I think this is a new record for ruining our lives" Vince quipped as the two arrived at T.J.'s locker

"Well on the bright side things can't get any worse" T.J. said with just a glimmer of hope as he put some binders in the locker before closing it and the boys continued on their way.

"I guess" Vince agreed hoping that T.J. was right and sure enough the rest of his day went off without a hitch, his friends however didn't all have the same kind of luck.

* * *

As if Spinelli wasn't annoyed enough with her physics class being first period of the day Ashley Tomassian walked in not long after her and took the seat diagonally across from her.

"Oh well could be worse" she muttered thankful that it was only the Ashley who had given her the least trouble in elementary school.

Less than a minute later Ashley Boulet came through the door and sat right in front of her friend.

"Ok its worse but at least it's just those two" Spinelli said continuing to mutter her words to herself only to see the final two Ashley's from Third Street come in gossiping two minutes later.

"This is going to be a long year" Spinelli quietly groaned, burying her head in her folded arms atop the desk; she was too tired to be angry at the situation.

Of course out of all of them Ashley Armbruster was the one to sit right in front of Spinelli. It hadn't even been thirty seconds and already Spinelli wanted to smash her head through the desk at the sound of the Ashley's giggling and squealing about what they had been up to over the summer, particularly getting their nails done.

_I swear if I hear the word scandalous one time I am going to scream!_ Spinelli thought to herself wondering what she had done to deserve this and wishing that the universe would grant her just one friend to suffer through this torment with her but alas not a single friend of hers entered the classroom that morning.

"Good morning class my name is Mr. Porter and I will be your physics teacher this year" the teacher said as he began skimming the attendance list, the guy was way too cheery for the first day of school.

"Wow a lot of Ashley's" Mr. Porter remarked after calling the names on the list, Spinelli raised her hand.

"You can just call me Spinelli" she said as her teacher made note with a grateful smile; at least that made it a little easier on him.

"Still ashamed of your name Spinelli?" Ashley A. taunted turning in her seat to face her old rival.

Spinelli glared daggers at her "no but I see you're still as annoying as ever" she snapped causing Ashley A. to pretend she was hurt

"I was just asking a simple question, but I don't think T.J. would be too happy to hear your attitude" she mocked but Spinelli only looked at her quizzically

"What does T.J. have to do with anything?" She asked suddenly confused, she never knew Ashley A. to bring random people into arguments.

"Oh sorry I thought you two were still you know like that" Ashley A. responded while crossing her fingers

"I just thought that he would've told you we started going out over the summer" the annoying girl explained.

Spinelli looked at her, searching her face for a smirk or a scoff. Any indication that she was lying but sadly Spinelli saw it in her eyes that she was indeed telling the truth.

* * *

Joslyn was having a fairly decent day but that all went down the drain at lunch. The cafeteria was serving sloppy Joe's for the first day and Joslyn got up to throw away the garbage left in her bagged lunch. Unfortunately for her a few tables away sat a group of boys, one of which hadn't eaten his sloppy Joe and he sat right in front of the trash can. The boy reached back to throw away his tray, still containing the messy sandwich, without even looking and ended up accidently smearing the food onto Joslyn's shirt.

Seeing his friends hysterically laughing faces the boy turned only to see that his tray had hit against a girl who looked down at her shirt in frustration.

"Oh man I am so sorry" he apologized as he stood up embarrassed and unsure what he could do seeing as the girl had already scooped his lunch from the floor and placed it in the trash bin.

"It's alright" Joslyn assured just wanting to get out of there and back to her friends but the boy in front of her was fumbling through his pocket before finally pulling out a crumpled up paper towel.

"Here, I swear it isn't used" he said sort of jokingly and before Joslyn could protest he was trying to wiped the smeared meat off her stomach.

"Alright thanks" she said awkwardly as she tried not to push the guy off of her, after all he was just trying to help.

This guy thankfully got the hint that she would rather take care of the mess herself and threw away the paper towel.

"Again I'm really sorry" he repeated sheepishly rubbing the back of his neck

"It's alright" Joslyn repeated walking away from the boy.

She returned to her own table where Patrick and Nate were laughing while Collin had a cringing look on his face

"Ouch" Collin said

"Yeah and I don't have gym this semester so I don't have a spare shirt" Joslyn complained as she took her seat while the other two boys finally calmed down.

"So you really have to walk around like that for the rest of the day?" Nate questioned and Joslyn nodded annoyed

"Looks like" she answered and after a moment's hesitation and mental debate Nate unzipped his white sweatshirt and held it out to Joslyn who eyes him curiously.

"Just take it, it'll hide the stain" he insisted and like he had in giving it to her Joslyn hesitated for a moment before eventually taking it and pulling it on

"Thanks" she said gratefully as she zipped it up.

Joslyn would never admit it but she liked the way the baggy sweatshirt hung loosely off her body and was a size too big for her. The way the sleeves were warm on the inside from Nate having worn it all morning and even the way it smelled slightly of his normally nauseating colon made her smile in delight but she soon shook it away trying to keep one simple thing in mind.

It means nothing.

* * *

"Spinelli what were you up to all summer?" T.J. asked his friend during their lunch. It was the two of them, Gabe, Gus and Vanessa. Sort of an odd mix but they all knew each other.

"Not much but your girlfriend told me why you were never home when I called" she said in a very irritated tone.

Ok that had come out a little harsher than she meant, after all she had only called T.J. twice over the summer and gotten his mother saying that he wasn't home but still it annoyed her that he never told her, she thought they were better friends than that.

T.J. looked surprised and didn't know what to say to that, he didn't think Spinelli and Ashley talked at all so he hadn't been worried about his girlfriend breaking the news before he did. Gus looked from T.J. to Spinelli confused while Gabe and Vanessa watched the two in amusement; once lunch was over the two would probably be placing bets on something involving the argument that was about to ensue.

"Spinelli I was going to tell you I swear-" T.J. began but his friend cut him off, with a surprisingly calm and collected attitude.

"It's cool Teej, you don't have to explain anything to me" she said only for T.J. to glare at her in confusion

"I don't?" He finally asked not knowing what else to say, Spinelli gave a small snort of laughter.

"No I'm your friend not your mom. You would've told me when and if you wanted to. Your love life is none of my business" she said.

It surprised everyone how maturely Spinelli was handling this but to say that T.J. was surprised that she was ok with it would be an understatement. After all the times he had freaked out on her for getting remotely close to guy she found out that he is dating a girl she can't stand and is totally fine with it. Not to mention that if the situation was reverse he would want her to explain herself to him.

Even more surprising Spinelli actually was ok with it but then again that's only because she couldn't see the relationship lasting longer than a week and a half.

* * *

Joslyn wen to her last period study hall and found none other than the guy who had spilt sloppy Joe on her in there, he blushed when he saw her.

"Hey" he said awkwardly as she took a seat next to him, unsure of why she did.

"Hey" She responded as if nothing had ever happened between the two

"Well uh sorry again but at least your boyfriend gave you a sweatshirt to wear over it" he sort of joked trying to break the ice, Joslyn giggled.

"Oh trust me the guy who gave me this is not my boyfriend, in fact he hated me until the end of last year" she admitted.

"What changed his mind?" The boy asked thinking maybe he should've said something else

"I used to hang out with somebody who hurt him, he finally realized that I'm not like her and that she hurt me too" Joslyn admitted, she still hated Monica.

The guy chuckled "well good to hear that things are all good now" he said as Joslyn giggled again

"Hey didn't you used to be a grade above me?" She asked and the boy grinned smugly

"Yeah I failed freshman year but I never knew what grade you were in, how did you know about me?" He asked causing Joslyn to laugh just a little bit

"I heard about you once, and the white streak in your hair is pretty memorable" she admitted and Butch only smirked.


	22. Who you are inside

It was a typical weekend of hanging out at T.J.'s house and that means that the whole gang, minus Joslyn because she was working, was hanging out in the backyard and their game of touch football had quickly turned to tackle. The teams were three against four, T.J., Spinelli, and Gabe vs Vince, Patrick, Nate and Collin.

"Remind me why we gave them Vince and the guy who is actually on the football team?" Gabe asked sarcastically as his team struggled to hold onto the ball

"Because they also have Nate and Collin who have no coordination" T.J. reminded Gabe and Nate and Collin probably would have argued but they knew that sports are not they're thing.

"Gabe I'm open!" Spinelli's shouting voice cut through the conversation and Gabe quickly located her then passed the ball.

Now Spinelli can certainly hold her own against the guys however one disadvantage that even she will admit to having is her height. She's about average height for a girl but when it comes to the guys she's the shortest. The shortest guy would be Nate and he has about three inches on her while the tallest, Vince, stands at least a foot taller than her if not more. So it came as no surprise when Collin was able to jump in front of her and intercept the ball before she could have ever reached it even by jumping. Being used to this happening Spinelli tried to tackle Collin the instant he landed back on the ground but Collin saw it coming and without thinking swung his fist back behind him, nailing Spinelli right in the eye.

The game came to a standstill as Spinelli went down

"What was that?" Patrick demanded of Collin furiously

"She tried to tackle me!" Collin said attempting to defend himself as Spinelli picked herself up off the ground, not that anyone paid her any attention.

"There's no punching in football and even if there was you can't hit a girl!" Gabe exclaimed only for Spinelli to roll her eyes, she hated the rare moments when the guys treated her differently than they treated each other.

"Spinelli doesn't count as a girl" Collin argued and to Spinelli's surprise that actually hurt.

She didn't understand why. After all that had always been her life's ambition, to be just as tough as the guys. She used to beat kids up for saying that she was a girl but now, now she wanted to beat Collin up for saying that she wasn't.

The other five all looked at Collin with a mix of expressions but each face conveyed the same message, they all thought he had gone too far.

"Ooohhhh" Nate exclaimed expecting Spinelli to go through with her thoughts of hitting Collin so hard that he'd fly through the fence but instead and to the surprise of some of the guys she just shook it off.

"Little hurtful but he's got a point" she finally said with a shrug and a giggle, the other's looked her as if still waiting for her anger to explode.

"Come on guys I know what he meant" she assured them causing Collin to breathe a sigh of relief; apparently he had also feared that she would at least smack him.

So with that said the game continued.

* * *

Just like most other weekends Mikey and Vanessa were hanging out at the skate park when unlike other weekends Becky and Gus showed up.

"Hey guys" Mikey greeted happily as Vanessa came to a stop atop the half pipe's ledge, her guard suddenly up knowing that her sister NEVER bothered to fallow her here.

"What's up with you two?" She asked trying to hide the suspicion in her voice.

Sure Vanessa and Becky have become better friends in the last few years and Vanessa has come to understand that she is so much more than a shadow of her sister but that doesn't stop her from keeping Becky's 'evil twin' tendencies in mind and being careful when she does something out of the ordinary.

"Gus came over but then so did Aunt Cheryl so I thought we'd come find you two" Becky exclaimed and Vanessa nodded no longer worried.

"What the matter with your Aunt Cheryl?" Mikey asked looking up to the ledge at Vanessa who smirked

"She's not a nice lady" His girlfriend said bluntly before heading back down the half pipe and then proceeding to do a flip.

"I don't know how she does that" Becky admitted in awe as the three of them watched Vanessa backflip in midair and land back on her feet to continue riding as if she had done nothing.

"Neither do I" Mikey declared as his girlfriend once again stopped on the ledge, this time to get a drink of her water.

"I swear I could never do that" Becky admitted causing her sister's defenses to come back

_No kidding why do you think I do it? _She thought

"I've tried, why don't you?" Vanessa nearly choked on her water when she heard Mikey suggest that

"Yeah Becky I bet you could make it going down" Gus encouraged; none of the three teenagers on the ground could see Vanessa digging her nails deep into her palms.

Becky considered it, she was afraid but she figured that so long as she stayed standing she could probably do it. After all she wouldn't dare try any of the tricks Vanessa did.

"Alright" she finally gave in before climbing up the ladder to the top of the ledge but even she saw the scowl on Vanessa's face when she handed over her gear.

"You're going be laughing if I fall aren't you?" Becky asked sarcastically trying to lighten Vanessa's obviously irritated mood.

"Only if you don't get knocked out" she replied in a snarky voice so Becky frowned, well if she was going to be that way.

So Becky went down the ramp and it was so not her thing but at the end she was amazed to find herself standing on the other ledge.

From the ground below the boys were cheering genuinely surprised that Becky had done as well as she did, even Gus had expected her to be a little more wobbly.

"Congrats you made it to the other side" Vanessa shouted over, completely unimpressed.

Becky rolled her eyes at her sister "That was fun; maybe I'll start skateboarding" she said mostly just to spite Vanessa for being so mad over nothing.

Vanessa on the other hand could feel her face growing red and tears welling up in her eyes

"I'm done for the day" she muttered heading back to the ground

_Thanks a lot Mikey_ She silently thought.

* * *

When Spinelli got home she listened to her mother's usual speech with her usual lack of concern over it, it was the same old thing of how she shouldn't be playing rough like that with boys and how she could get hurt and blah blah blah. Spinelli was not in the mood to listen to her mother's rant tonight and if that swing from Collin turned into a black eye, boy was she in for it.

But instead of worrying about that she headed up to her room and leaned against the wall completely exhausted. She glanced around the room at, taking a good look at everything it contained. Some dirty laundry lay on the white carpeted floor where she had dropped them when changing. Her pillow had no case and the comforter on her bed was a deep midnight blue. Also on her bed sat her old toy Mr. Monk-Monk and on her nightstand were a few college pamphlets and an alarm clock. She had some other things; a box of DVD's and homework littered the desk she had in the corner of her room but aside from that not much else and hardly anything which could indicate that the room belonged to a seventeen year old girl.

Spinelli sighed wondering why she was letting Collin's comment get to her so much, after all she's happy with whom she is and has the life she always dreamed of, aside from a difficult relationship with her mother but nothing's perfect. But being just one of the guys, although she loves it, is strangely not as great as she always thought it was.

"Ugh" Spinelli groaned peeling herself from the wall and flopping down on her bed

"I swear girls with sisters don't know how lucky they are" she muttered wishing desperately that she had somebody who could help her. She wouldn't dare go to her mother, if she tried explaining to her mom that she wanted to just try and tone down her tomboy personality just a tiny bit the woman would think that she was finally becoming the perfect daughter she had wanted.

But she couldn't go to her brother; he wouldn't understand something like this. She considered maybe talking with Taylor could help then again she and Joey had just had a baby and she probably didn't have time to listen to her sister in law's problems.

Spinelli mentally went through a list of all her female friends but realized that most of them are pretty rough around the edges as well, except for Becky and Gretchen but she doesn't know either of them very well at least not enough to go to them for help on such a personal issue. Besides Vanessa says that most of the time when she asks her sister a personal question she just ends up more confused or angrier than she was to start with. Sighing Spinelli remembered that she was supposed to be going shopping tonight anyway so she decided that when she did she would try and get a few things just a little different from her usual wardrobe.

* * *

When she got home Vanessa said hello to her Aunt Cheryl but that was all she said before disappearing into the backyard. In the yard she approached the foot of a pine tree and jumped to grab one if it's lower branches. Using the branch she pulled herself up and quickly climbed up the tree to a high branch sturdy enough for her to sit on.

"Why would he do that?" She asked herself as the tears she had suppressed earlier resurfaced

"I mean he knows what skateboarding means to me, he knows it's one of the few things that I have over her and then he just ripped it away from me!" She quietly exclaimed as she cried softly so not to be heard

"Mikey, of all people!" She cried to herself unable to believe that someone who knew her heart so well had basically just torn it out; she thought she was over things like this but clearly she isn't.

She had been up in the tree for maybe ten minutes when she unmistakably heard the backdoor opening and closing, which was odd since her family knew she was out there and no one ever bothered coming after her when she was upset. But there was nothing in the yard that any of them could be coming to get. Vanessa tried to see the door but a branch blocked her view until finally she just looked down, shocked to see Mikey standing at the base of the tree looking up.

"You know I could just drop a pinecone on your head" she suggested to him but he didn't move

"What's the matter Vanessa?" He asked causing her to scoff, what it isn't obvious?

"What just because I'm in a tree it means that something's wrong?" She asked sarcastically but she could tell that he wasn't buying it.

"This isn't you Vanessa. Talking rude to me and the cold attitude you gave to Becky back at the skate park. You didn't talk to me the whole way back; you've been more closed off than usual so what's bothering you?" He asked seriously

"What if I don't want to talk?" She shouted down to him still angry

"That's not you either" he shouted back up and Vanessa actually laughed

"Not me?" She questioned amused

"Before high school I never talked, there is nothing more like me than silence" she mocked but what Mikey said to her next only proved how well he knows her.

"You never talked because you didn't think anyone would listen. I know you Vanessa, I know you want to talk but you don't know how. Just please try because I promise I'll listen" he pleaded with her as she stared down at him in surprise, no one had ever cared about her enough to read in her motives for being the way she is.

"It's nothing" she finally said making her way down the branches of the tree

"No it's not nothing!" Mikey said again in a pleading voice as his girlfriend finally hit the ground.

"Yes it is, now. Look I admit I got a little annoyed when you told Becky to give skateboarding a shot because it's always been my thing but… that's just stupid. I'm sick of competing in a one-sided competition and I'm going to stop before it costs me the best thing I have in my life" she promised, a small smile crossing her face.

"Vanessa believe me Becky didn't fall but she's never going to beat you on a skateboard" Mikey assured her but she only giggled

"Not skateboarding genius… you" Vanessa clarified wrapping her arms around Mikey who gladly returned the hug.


	23. The college fair

It may already be early October of senior year but that didn't stop the school from hosting a college fair and requiring all seniors to go; at least they got out of class for the morning.

"This is stupid most of us already know where we're going" Spinelli complained as she walked around the fair with Patrick and just then the two of them saw T.J. and his girlfriend approaching

"Ugh but not as stupid as that" Spinelli continued seeing the couple walking towards them holding hands

"What Spinelli are you jealous?" Patrick teased but of course his friend only rolled her eyes

"Of course not, it's just after a month of looking at them holding hands all the time I'm starting to get nauseous, it's disgusting " she said and Patrick let it go knowing Spinelli in fact is one of those girls who finds any public display of affection revolting.

Spinelli in turn was thankful that Patrick bought it, she actually enjoyed seeing couples happy but because of her tomboy personality all her friends just assumed she hated it. It may be a false label but it's one that works to her advantage so she never defended herself.

"Hey guys" T.J. greeted them, unaware of how much effort Spinelli was putting into not rolling her eyes.

"Sup" Patrick said in return

"So Spinelli find any wrestling schools here?" Ashley teased and Spinelli couldn't help but give her the stink eye

"Actually I decided that I want to be a counselor" Spinelli said back to her best friend's extremely annoying girlfriend, both T.J. and Patrick were trying to ignore the obvious tension between the girls.

* * *

Meanwhile Gretchen walked around from table to table with Joslyn, they both knew that Spinelli was getting near her breaking point and Gretchen had a pretty good idea of what it looked like when she hit it.

"So I take it you decided against graduating early" Joslyn said as the two walked through the crowded gymnasium.

"Yeah I was going to but then I met Mundy" Gretchen began but quickly realized that she didn't know how to put what she was trying to say.

"He's a year older than you, seems like he would be all the more reason to graduate early if you ask me" Joslyn replied not quite understanding how Mundy had affected her friends decision to stay in high school another year.

"I know but… Remember what you said to me last Halloween, about being kids again?" Gretchen asked and Joslyn thought for a moment before the conversation returned to her memory

"Yeah" she finally said wondering why Gretchen had bothered to remember something like that

"Well the past few years I've been so focused on growing up that I didn't realize I could still be a kid sometimes and Mundy…" Gretchen continued trying to find the right words but Joslyn only nodded with an understanding smile

"Yeah he's a piece of work but I get it" she said glad that Mundy had been able to get Gretchen to enjoy the present.

* * *

"You're not going" Becky argued with her sister as the two plus Mikey and Gus walked away from the military table at the college fair. They had stopped there so Gus could get some information and Vanessa ended up taking interest as well

"I never said I was I just said it seems like a good idea" Vanessa fought back, secretly she had always been fascinated by the idea of joining the air force but she never thought she actually would.

"Good because mom and dad would never let you go" Becky argued only for Vanessa to roll her eyes in response

"Hey once we turn eighteen mom and dad have no control over me and dad tried to send me to military school when we were nine" Vanessa reminded Becky who had to admit to at least the second thing but certainly not the first

"You still have to listen to them" Becky argued causing Vanessa to glare at her defensively

"I know I was kidding" she said kind of annoyed that her sister had to take everything so seriously

And so the argument between the two girls lasted a few minutes longer before Gus spotted a table that was giving out key chain flashlights and cut through the argument to tell the girls about it, knowing Vanessa would take interest just to annoy Becky but hey it worked.

* * *

Vince didn't have much to do at the college fair; he had already been recruited by the basketball team at a good college so he already knew where he was going. Unfortunately walking around the gym doing nothing all morning wasn't a great tactic for avoiding principal Prickly.

"Interested in anything Vince?" The principal asked, surprisingly he had stayed out of the hair of many of his old students. When he came here most of them feared that he would hold any and all old mistakes they made against them but he didn't, if anything he actually seemed happy to see many of his old students finishing high school.

"I already know where I'm going" Vince replied awkwardly, suddenly wishing that he hadn't lost track of his friends.

But much to Vince's surprise Prickly asked him where and when Vince told him he seemed truly interested to hear more and so Vince told him. He told him about where he was going and that he was planning to play basketball all throughout college but he didn't think that he would continue as a player afterwards, he was planning to go into studying sports management which his principal seemed to approve of.

"Well good luck Vince" Prickly said at the end of their two minute conversation and so Vince walked away grateful because truthfully he hadn't been so sure before if he had made the right choice.

* * *

It was the end of the college fair as everyone was leaving when T.J. pulled his girlfriend to the side and out of the crowd

"Hey what's wrong?" Ashley asked catching on quickly to the less than happy attitude that T.J. had as the two of them stood in a corner where the crowd would pass right by them

"Look I know that you and Spinelli have never been friends but could you please just try to get along with her?" He asked calmly, he wasn't angry and so far the two girls hadn't had any problems with each other than unspoken dislike for each other. T.J. knew that the two would most likely never be friends and he wasn't asking them to be but he was asking that they at least make their hatred for one another less obvious.

"Why don't you ask her?" Ashley snapped a little annoyed that T.J. was speaking with just her about this and not Spinelli

"I will I promise but will you please just try?" He pleaded taking one of her hands in his, Ashley thought it over for a minute before finally sighing with a smile

"Ok for you" she agreed before kissing him.

"Thank you" T.J. said after pulling away from the kiss, he hoped that both girls would agree to try and just hate each other less because he really did not want to find himself in a position where he would have to choose between them.

* * *

In his class fallowing the college fair Gus tried to focus, he really did, but he just couldn't. They had stopped at a couple of tables for places Becky was interested in; she wanted to become a teacher. She wanted a steady life, a stable home, a place that never moved. But Gus wanted to be just like his father, he wanted to travel all around the country serving in the military wherever he could. So now he was torn because he really doesn't want to break up with Becky but at the same time he was beginning to feel like it was the right thing to do. Plus he couldn't talk to a girl about this because aside from Becky the only girl he knew well enough to where he could trust her on something like this is Vanessa and there was no way he was going to talk to Vanessa about possibly breaking up with her sister. No this was something that he was just going to have to figure out for himself.


	24. Work is almost never easy

The door to Joey and Taylor's apartment closed shut, leaving Spinelli alone in the apartment with her two month old nephew Anthony. Joey and Taylor had to go to a wake tonight for the father of one of Taylor's friends and they didn't want to bring the baby but Spinelli's parents were also going out for the night so Spinelli wound up as the baby-sitter for the night. She figured it would be alright; it was only for a few hours and from what she knew Anthony wasn't that difficult to handle, so long as she didn't put him down. He was one of those babies who loved to be held, he didn't like his playpen or even his matt on the living room floor and the only reason she had ever seen him stay clam once set down was if he was already asleep and being put in his crib.

But aside from not being able to put him down, which after an hour grew annoying, Anthony really was an easy kid to take care of. Until he needed his diaper changed that is.

It was pretty obvious by the smell that the kid needed a new diaper so Spinelli went and laid him down on the changing table in the nursery but as she pulled off his diaper one embarrassing but still unfortunate fact crossed her mind; she wasn't sure of how to change a little boy's diaper. Girl's Spinelli could do, obviously that was just natural plus she had a younger cousin who she had changed the diaper of a few times and this cousin was a girl. But although she thought she knew what to do it was only because she had seen it in a movie once and she still wasn't too sure she should be taking reference from a movie. The thought crossed her mind to call someone but she instantly shook away that idea, who would she call anyway? No this was something that she was just going to have to figure out

"Alright kid just bear with me" she muttered as her nephew lying on the table started to squirm around.

* * *

"Is that woman insane?" Vanessa questioned while she and Mikey were at the skate park despite the late hour.

Gina had finally done it, after years of joking about retirement from the committee she had finally gone through with it which everyone knew would happen sooner or later but Vanessa could not believe that she had been serious when she decided to name the teen as her successor as leader.

"No she trusts you and for good reason, you love the volunteer work and you always do everything you can when you're working" Mikey told her not really understanding why his girlfriend was so frustrated with her new position.

"Yeah but I'm not a leader" Vanessa argued, her arms folded across her stomach as she paced back and forth thinking about the events of the past day,

It had been an ordinary haunted house at the children's center, one of Vanessa's favorite projects the committee was involved with. Everything went smoothly and afterwards everyone went out to dinner, something that they normally did after events where they weren't serving food. Rumors had been going around that Gina was retiring but considering they had been going around for years Vanessa paid no attention to them or at least until Gina asked for everybody's attention she didn't. First she congratulated everybody on their work today and then she confirmed it, she was leaving. She along with more than half of the others had chosen this year to retire leaving the committee to consist of just Vanessa, Becky, Mikey, David who is a college student and Trent who is David's brother and nine years old. Gina didn't mention how unfair it was to take a committee of twenty-five people and suddenly bring it down to five but she claimed that the kids would be just fine because she was leaving them in capable hands; she was leaving Vanessa in charge.

With everyone staring at her and clapping Vanessa had accepted the job gratefully but the instant she got home she headed for the skate park to blow off steam and of course Mikey had fallowed her.

"Yes you are" Mikey said as he stood up and tried to reassure his girlfriend that she is in fact a great leader but she only scoffed.

"No I'm not, Gina chose me because I'm good at fallowing orders but there's a reason for that, I'm not very good at giving them!" Vanessa exclaimed wishing Gina could've left David in charge, sure she was probably more responsible than him but he is the oldest and he could learn.

"Vanessa Gina chose you because she knows that no matter how hard something is for you, you will do it. She knows that you are responsible enough to trust and that you'll stick to the traditions as well as adapt to anything that changes; you can be a great leader" Mikey said trying to reassure his girlfriend and for a moment it worked. Her tensed shoulders dropped and her face softened but then her true worries came forth.

"We're left with five people. Five kids and I'm the youngest person ever put in charge and considering the size of the jobs we do if I can't find more volunteers everything my family has been doing for the last forty something years will just vanish, and I'll be responsible" Vanessa admitted. This was her fear, to be the reason that the extended family she grew up with would disband.

But Mikey just wrapped his arms around her "Gina knew what she was leaving you with. Disadvantages don't stop people like you; they drive you into finding another way to succeed. She knew all the responsibilities and knew that you're ready to take them on, she chose you because she knows you won't let her down" he said and although he couldn't see it this made Vanessa smile.

* * *

Tonight was Gus's first night of work at Mr. Freeze, a local ice cream shop. He had completed training just fine but that doesn't mean he exactly knows what he's doing. It was maybe the sixth soft serve order he had taken when he pulled down on the lever for the ice cream, swirled it into the cone and then it got stuck. The cold vanilla ice cream quickly fell over out of the cone and onto Gus's hand making him shiver as he began to panic.

"Uh somebody help! The machines jammed!" He called through the little kitchen hoping that one of the other two workers would hear and help him.

He was still panicking when suddenly a hand gripped the lever tightly and forced it up, the overflow of ice cream finally stopping.

"Sorry, this thing is old and needs replacing. It gets stuck a lot" the person who had come to Gus's rescue explained.

It was Sarah, the owner's daughter and only other employee besides her father and Gus. She took a fresh cone from the box as Gus began to clean the mess. Once she had made the new cone and given it to the customer she began helping Gus with the mess

"Sorry" the blond boy apologized sheepishly as the two of them grabbed paper towel after paper towel

"It's not your fault, like I said that machine doesn't work great anymore" Sarah repeated.

Gus looked up when he reached for yet another paper towel; he was trying to get a good look at Sarah's face. She seemed all too familiar but he couldn't place where he knew her from. He had recognized her at school when he moved here but for the life of him he could not seem to remember ever meeting her before. Yet there was something about her brown eyes and curly red hair.

"Hey um I know this might sound weird but have you and me ever met before? Like before high school?" Gus asked as Sarah reached for what looked like would be the last paper towel they would need.

She giggled just a little bit "yeah but it's been awhile, you used to call me swinger girl" she answered and Gus's eyes briefly went wide.

She looked up allowing him to get a good look at her face and he wondered how it was that he hadn't seen it before.

"Wow uh I'm sorry I didn't recognize you" Gus apologized sheepishly as the two picked up the ice cream soaked paper towels and tossed them into the trash can

Sarah giggled again "some people look different from fourth grade to high school" she joked but of course she had recognized Gus the moment she saw him after he moved back, not much had changed with him.


	25. Can enemies become friends?

"You're probably just over reacting" Vanessa tried to reassure her sister as the two prepared for the day.

"No I'm not, Gus is avoiding me" Becky argued while Vanessa spit the remainder of her toothpaste into the sink

"So do you want me to talk to him?" Vanessa offered however she still had her doubts that Gus was in fact avoiding his girlfriend

"I don't know" Becky groaned, she hated to get her sister involved but at the same time she had to know what was going on with Gus and it was becoming all to obvious that he doesn't plan on telling her.

* * *

"New look?" Ashley A teased Spinelli when she walked into physics to find her boyfriend's tomboy of a friend actually wearing a plain black skirt white a white blouse, her black sneakers however remained.

"Not your business" Spinelli answered through gritted teeth, clearly bothered by her own appearance.

The other Ashley's all giggled while Ashley A merely rolled her eyes with an amused grin as she took her seat, ok so the two girls weren't exactly succeeding at getting along and it might surprise you to learn that they were trying. Ashley A tried not to be so mean to Spinelli but it was hard when the tomboy made it so easy, while Spinelli was suffering from the same problem. The problem was that the two girls could not see eye to eye. To Spinelli Ashley A was nothing more than a spoiled little rich girl who had everything in life handed to her. She would always sit there and complain about how her younger siblings were being annoying but that was her only problem, she went out with her friends or T.J. every Friday night and always had plans for the weekend, to her life was a never ending party.

Ashley on the other hand saw Spinelli as still being the same violent little tomboy she had been when they were kids, she was nothing more than a kid refusing to grow up. She didn't care about anything except for having fun and her idea of fun still consisted of running around in the mud. So obviously this Spinelli trying to dress nice thing was confusing Ashley beyond all reason especially since she seemed embarrassed by it, why would she change her look if she didn't want to?

* * *

Vanessa and Gus had an ancient history class together so Vanessa decided that it was as good a time as any to put her sister's paranoid mind at rest.

"Hey so Becky thinks that you've been avoiding her" she said to Gus as she took her seat a minute or two before class started, she wanted to get this ridiculous conversation out of the way before Mrs. Fitzgerald began today's lesson on the roman empire.

Gus quickly grew pale out of nerves, he hadn't meant to avoid Becky but he knew that he had been. He just needed to figure out how to break up with her and he had been hoping that she wouldn't notice his recent distance towards her, apparently he wasn't that lucky.

"Sorry I haven't meant to, I'll go talk to her after class" he promised before mentally scolding himself for setting such an impossible deadline to go see Becky again and then subsequently break up with her.

Vanessa only nodded, she could sense that Gus had something on his mind and she mentally debated whether or not to help him. On one hand she wasn't sure if she could help him and she really wasn't sure if she actually wanted to get involved in whatever it is. But on the other hand he's her friend, her boyfriend's best friend and her sister's boyfriend. Deciding that based on all three accounts Gus is practically family, Vanessa decided that she probably had to at least ask what was bugging him.

"Are you alright?" She asked although her question seemed a little delayed due to not having asked it right away but better late than never

"I guess" Gus answered knowing that he wasn't fooling Vanessa and if anything he was confirming to her that he had a problem. But he didn't care anymore, he had tried talking to Mikey but he had tried telling him that distance wouldn't matter and he should stay with Becky, sometimes it can seem like Mikey lives in a dream world.

"You guess?" Vanessa teased with a small smirk but still serious "come on, what's up?" She questioned trying to look Gus in the eye as he lowered his head

"Please don't be mad" Gus asked of his friend who suddenly looked more concerned than she had a minute ago

"I'll do my best" she told him fearing whatever it was that he was about to tell her

Gus let out a sigh "ever since the college fair I've realized what different things Becky and I want to do with our lives and I just know it'd be for the best if we were to… you know… break up but…" Gus trailed off not quite sure how to explain this.

"Wait so why did you think I'd be mad?" Vanessa asked

"Um because I'm pretty sure Becky would be at least a little upset if I broke up with her and even with your track record I doubt you like seeing your sister upset. Unless you caused it" Gus said trying to make a joke out of Vanessa's somewhat complicated relationship with Becky.

"Ha, ha very funny" Vanessa mocked dryly before reverting back to her sympathetic demeanor. "Gus you're one of my best friends and honestly judging by your reasons I think the last thing you want to do is upset Becky" she began, stopping to watch Gus's response and when he nodded to indicate that she was right she continued.

"Then let her down easy and let her down soon because it's only going to hurt both of you more if you lead her on" Vanessa advised him before Mrs. Fitzgerald called for the class's attention

"Trust me you'll feel better once it's over" Vanessa assured her friend before turning around in her seat to face the front.

* * *

Never once did Vince ever think that in his lifetime he would feel even an ounce of pity for Randall Weems. But that day during their gym class they were playing the same thing that they played every time they had a substitute teacher, handball.

It's a relatively simple game, many of the kids described it as soccer with your hands but unfortunately Vince had Randall on his team and with no one else wanting to paly goal Randall ended up doing it only to receive several balls to the face.

"I'm going to pull Randall out of goal" Vince said after the first game was won by the opposing team and they were getting in position for the next game

"Why? He's blocking almost every shot" A girl named Carly protested only to have Jessica Smith roll her eyes

"He's also blocking them with his face" Jessica scolded, siding with Vince.

With that said Vince figured that the other two members of the team wouldn't have a problem with Randall being placed into the line of defense so he jogged over to the goal where Randall had just reached is position

"You're in" Vince said pointing to the line of defense at the center of the court

Randall looked at the de-facto leader of his team in surprise, he isn't exactly athletically inclined and today his face has been a ball magnet, which although painful seemed to be serving as an advantage. But none the less he nodded and raced off to play, something he never could've imagined doing.

As Vince took Randall's place in the goal he watched as the game began and his team advanced into their opponent's territory. At first the game seemed to be going well, until Jessica decided to pass the ball to Randall. It wasn't a bad decision; after all he was her only open teammate but he missed the ball and then was trampled by two members of the other team racing for it. Over the course of the three minute game Randall was shoved, knocked over, tripped and worst of all ignored, and maybe the saddest part was that none of this was done purposely. So when the sub blew his whistle and Vince's team vacated the court in order to alternate with the third team who had sat out the previous game, it came as a relief to Randall and pretty much anybody who had been watching him.

"Mind if I take goal again next game?" Randall asked Vince thinking that at least he wouldn't get as hurt playing goal

"Sure" Vince agreed knowing that Randall was probably right.

Sure Vince never thought he'd ever feel sorry for that Snitch, and yes Randall still is a Snitch. He still starts rumors and tells lies just to get a laugh for himself, he's Ms. Finster's student assistant which has given a laugh to anyone who ever attended Third Street during the same time Randall did. Not to mention all of the paper's he's cheated on over the years; sure everyone had cheated on papers throughout the years but Randall defiantly holds the record for it. But watching that sad display during the game it had been visible not only on Randall's face but all over his body that he was truly trying. He was really trying his hardest and he was just failing miserably. Jessica seemed to have noticed too, as she was also eyeing her beat up teammate sympathetically.

"At least we've only got one more week of this" she said under her breath

"Yeah but then its volleyball" Vince said revealing that he had heard her

Jessica whirled her head around but Vince did not meet her gaze, it was as if they were each speaking only to themselves but were playing off of each other's statements.

"You think he's going to get hurt doing that to?" Jessica asked choosing her words carefully in case Randall heard her, although he probably knew that he sucked and wouldn't be surprised if she said it she still didn't want to take the chance.

"Not if we just keep the ball away from him" Carly muttered but Vince narrowed his eyes.

No, he wouldn't make the same mistake twice. Keeping the ball away from a bad player, it was so simple but it was the worst thing you could do. Vince had done it before and he knew how to do it, you only made sure that people who knew what they were doing and were good at it could get the ball. You convinced yourself that the bad player in question didn't notice or didn't care or even understood that what was happening was being done for the good of the team.

But Gretchen had made him see things clearly.

What he did to her in seventh grade, at the time he thought it was no big deal. But when she took that shot and he blew up at her about it afterwards, she had been so hurt. At the time he thought it had been pure anger she let loose on him that night and maybe it was, but maybe it was more.

* * *

_Vince waited outside of the girl's locker room until Gretchen came out and when she did upon seeing the anger written all over his face she rolled her eyes._

_"__What were you thinking Gretch?" He demanded of her as she leaned against the wall knowing that he would keep her here longer than a minute._

_"__I was thinking that the game was almost over, we needed one basket to win and I had a clear shot" she spat at him, clearly not in the mood to have this argument, not that Vince cared at the moment._

_"__Gretchen there is no way you could have ever made that shot and I was telling you! I was telling you to pass and you didn't listen!" He shouted at her as a fire lit inside of her eyes_

_"__The only reason you were yelling at me to pass is because you didn't want to give me a chance-" she had begun only to be cut off_

_"__It was a chance we couldn't afford" Vince argued but Gretchen gritted her teeth and shook her head._

_"__It didn't have to be" she spat now seething with rage_

_"__I knew from the beginning that the only reason you wanted me on this team was so you could play and that's why I did it. But I thought that you would at least teach me and if you had then I would've made that shot!" Gretchen shouted back at him but he just rolled his eyes, he wouldn't say it out loud but no amount of training could help Gretchen._

_"__Look blame me all you want but you knew you couldn't make that shot and you still took it" Vince spat at her before walking away to go join his parents._

* * *

It had been almost five years and just now when replaying the fight over in his head Vince was beginning to hear the crack that Gretchen had in her voice that night and he wondered if he was imagining it. Regardless he had already lost one friend because of his competitive nature and although he has since made amends with Gretchen and Randall is anything but a friend to him he still doesn't want to make someone feel the way he made Gretchen feel. What was natural to him was foreign to her and foreign to Randall, he wouldn't just ignore it this time around. He didn't know how just yet but somehow he was going to help Randall.

* * *

The day after her failed attempt at dressing like a normal girl Spinelli returned to school dressed in her usual jeans and t-shirt. Her mom had asked her why she dressed up yesterday and not today for her birthday but Spinelli simply shrugged it off and hurried out the door. So now she walked to her locker before homeroom started and began turning the dial. She sighed remembering how during the previous years of high school T.J. had made this stop with her every morning. She was always the second of their friends to show up in the morning, the first being T.J. who would wait by the main entrance for about five minutes until she got there and then he would follow her to her locker. By the time she closed her locker door Patrick was usually getting to school so they would head back to the main entrance and meet him there before going to roam the halls. It wasn't much but it was a routine that went down the drain when Ashley A came into the picture and by this point Spinelli figured that the relationship may actually last.

"Oh well" she breathed finally yanking her locker door open after dialing her combination a second time when it didn't work the first time.

Immediately a bright green gift bag with a red ribbon tied to one of the handles sitting on the high shelf in the locker caught her eye.

"Which one of those idiots broke into my locker this time?" Spinelli grumbled wondering what kind of gag gift her friends had placed inside of that bag.

She reached up and pinched the edge of the bag to pull it down and then get a better grip on it but when she looked inside she didn't see a joke.

She normally would've thought it was joke; the lime green paper bag was filled mostly with sparkly white tissue paper and under the first layer was make-up. There was a tube of mascara, a small eye shadow palette, a tube of lip gloss, and a small container of blush along with a brush to go with it. Taped to the lid of the blush was a note with amazingly small hand writing on it

_Your clothes are fine; I think this is what you were looking for. Don't use it if you don't want to-Happy Birthday._

_-Ashley_

_P.S. the thing on the bottom is from T.J._

To say that Spinelli was surprised that T.J.'s girlfriend had gotten her something for her birthday would be a huge understatement. Spinelli was completely and totally dumbfounded by the gift and truth be told make-up was exactly what she had wanted. She had wanted to buy herself some for a little while now, even before Collin's stupid comment, but every time she went shopping her mother was with her and she could NOT let that woman know that she wanted to try and be just a little more girly, it felt like admitting defeat. Pushing the make-up aside she looked under the second lair of tissue to find that T.J.'s gift was just as personal. It was her old orange ski cap which she had given him when she moved away, she giggled thinking about how cheesy that had been but at the time it seemed appropriate. She put it on her head for a second, kind of surprised that it still fit. She took the cap off and fixed her hair before placing it back in the bag and then back in her locker so nothing would get crushed inside of her backpack. She decided to come and get the gift at the end of the day and then use it tomorrow.


	26. Everyone needs a little help

Vanessa wouldn't admit it but her conversation with Gus had left her a bit uneasy. She knew that she should probably be preparing to deal with her sister if Gus did end up breaking up with her but she just couldn't focus on that. Truthfully her conversation with Gus had made her reconsider her own relationship with Mikey. Gus was going to break up with Becky because he planned on going into the military and every day Vanessa found herself thinking more and more seriously about joining the air force. She let out a frustrated sigh thankful that today Mikey was busy and she was alone at the skate park, she really just needed to think. She sat there on the ledge of the half pipe for only a few minutes before giving up and grabbing her board, the sun was setting and the November air had grown too cold to bear over an hour earlier but Vanessa didn't care, she needed to decide now. So she hoped on her board and practically threw herself down the ramp, she could sit still and think all she wanted but it would never do her any good; she focused best when she was moving and preferably moving fast.

She did a flip and couldn't help but revel in every second that she had in the air, she loved to fly. Thinking this through now Vanessa accepted that she really had no college plans yet and as a senior that wasn't exactly a good thing. She knew that she could still get into the military, although that was something she hadn't thought about since she was four years old. Truthfully the only thing keeping her from it was Mikey when in reality they were probably going to be separated no matter what and she wasn't going to be like Gus, she wasn't going to spend her life in the service.

Landing on the ledge Vanessa jumped off her board and tossed it to the ground before descending down the steps herself. Her parents were going to kill her but she didn't care, she knew what she was going to do.

* * *

Spinelli tried the make-up the next day and although she hadn't thought it possible she was actually more embarrassed than she had been the previous day. Sure she was hardly wearing any of the make-up Ashley had given her, only a little bit of the eye shadow and blush, but she felt nothing like herself. Make-up obviously just wasn't her thing and she couldn't wait to go home and wash it off, she would've gone into the girl's bathroom to do that but she figured that she should at least give it a chance. So that was her train of thought up until the end of fourth period music when the class was just hanging around with nothing to do.

"There's something different about you today" a voice said causing Spinelli to look up and see Damion Richards.

She tried not to give him a strange look but he had never said one word to her, why did he care if she looked different or not?

"Yeah I'm wearing make-up" she responded sheepishly only for Damion to nod and lean up against the wall, indicating that he wasn't going to just walk away.

"Never pegged you for a make-up girl" he said but Spinelli only shrugged, so Damion continued

"No offence but I think you look better without it" he said causing Spinelli to smile slightly as she hoped the make-up would hide the fact that she was blushing just the tinniest bit.

"Thanks" she said before the bell rang and the class filed out into the busy halls

* * *

With the normal gym teacher having said that she would be out all week it was day two of handball and instead of just standing around talking the first few minutes of class while they waited for everybody to finish changing Vince grabbed the ball and convinced Jessica to help him out.

"Randall come here" Vince called, Randall gave him a funny look in response as if he wasn't sure if Vince was really talking to him or not. But when Vince motioned for him come over he came

"What?" Randall asked secretly hoping that he wasn't about to get yelled at for doing such a poor job yesterday.

"Catch" Vince said with a grin, tossing Randall the ball.

Randall caught the gentle toss but just barely and his throw was even worse when he passed the ball to Jessica. Randall couldn't for the life of him understand what was happening; if he didn't know better he would've said that Vince and Jessica were helping him. But that couldn't be, they both hate his guts. He had tortured Vince enough throughout the years and as for Jessica; he spread a rumor about her freshman year that was so bad he heard that her parents had to put her in counseling.

Regardless Randall went along with the two minutes of training and then when the games started he took his position in goal, still getting hit in the face with almost every shot the opposing team took. After that first game it was time for Vince's team to sit out so they took to the benches and nervously Randall approached Jessica

"Were you… were you guys helping me earlier?" He asked her; in response she gave him a look which was silently yet sarcastically asking if he was surprised.

"Not everybody gets enjoyment out of other people's pain, even their enemy's" she replied bitterly, yup she was still mad.

Cautiously Randall took a seat next to her. She just stared straight ahead watching the game and refusing to look him in the eye. This was a new situation for both of them, they had known each other since kindergarten and neither had ever seen this side of the other before. Jessica had always known Randall to be a snitch, to not care about anyone's feelings other than his own. But now he seemed to almost feel guilty, if he was even capable of such an emotion. Whereas Randall although he never knew Jessica to be violent he did know her to be vengeful. He knew that she could be violent if she wanted to and to avoid her bad side, not that it stopped him.

So the rest of that class went by without another word from Randall who maybe did worse than he ever had before because his head wasn't in the game, it was off wondering why someone would ever give him a second chance.

* * *

"Sorry to bug you" Spinelli apologized from the couch of her brother's living room area.

Joey was still at work but Spinelli hadn't come here to see her brother, she had come to see Taylor.

"Ashley, Anthony is the only company I've had all day, I don't think it's possible for you to bug me" Taylor joked as she put the finally sleeping baby into his playpen before making her way over to the couch, silently praying that her son would stay asleep.

"I never thought I'd say this but I can't wait until I go back to work" Taylor joked as she sat down next to her sister in law who giggled at the comment.

"Now what's going on?" Taylor asked knowing that it wasn't like Ashley to go to anyone for help with anything so considering that she showed up saying that she needed some help something had to be wrong.

Spinelli let out a sigh "I just… My friends have always thought of me as just one of the guys and I love that but…" she began but her voice trailed off as her mind began telling her to shut up. Her mind kept saying that what she was saying was stupid and she should stop talking.

But it wasn't stupid, it was vulnerable and vulnerable was something which Spinelli was NOT used to being. She was used to walls, the walls of her tough girl and tomboy image had kept her safe almost her entire life and so she didn't really understand how to be anything else, but she wanted to.

Taylor just smiled a sweet and understanding smile "but you don't want to be confined to just that anymore" Taylor suggested

"I don't want to be, you know, really girly but at the same time I'm tired of being 'practically a guy'" Spinelli explained, scrunching her nose in disgust when she quoted Collin.

"Ashley you're not a guy" Taylor said with a laugh "but you don't need to change who you are-" Taylor continued to say but she was cut off.

"I'm not trying to" Spinelli said quickly "it's just that, I think I've outgrown the whole hardcore tomboy thing and I just don't know what to do now" Spinelli confessed, she didn't know where that had come from but it was the truth. She had spent her whole life clinging to childhood and now at eighteen she was finally letting herself grow up.

"Why don't you try wearing your hair down?" Taylor suggested suddenly realizing that her wedding was the only time she ever saw Ashley wear her hair in a style other than a pony tail, and it had been so pretty.

Spinelli however shook her head "mom won't let me out of the house like that, my hair is too frizzy" she admitted and Taylor gritted her teeth upon hearing that. She loves Joey's family but his mother can be so critical sometimes, especially when it comes to Ashley.

It's clear that Ashley's mother had a set idea of what her daughter would be like from the moment she was born, and it's even clearer that Ashley and her father get a lot of enjoyment out of watching that image crumble more and more with every passing day. But that plan has isolated Ashley from her mother. They talk but the poor kid is so afraid of her own mother judging her that she can't tell her anything and so now when she really needs guidance she's too embarrassed to ask.

"I can show you how to fix that" Taylor offered trying to get Ashley to say yes, it was time she stopped worrying so much about what her mom thinks, and for the record her mom still wears those pink 50's glasses.

Spinelli smiled and so did Taylor

"Come on" Taylor invited and pulled Ashley off into the bathroom.


	27. Form annoyance to embaressment

"Hey your hair's down" Gabe commented as Spinelli took her seat at lunch.

"Yeah, what's your point?" She asked defensively, for the first time this week she actually wasn't humiliated by some change in her appearance but she still wasn't too fond of it being pointed out, especially since she planned on keeping her hair this way from now on.

"Nothing, it looks nice" Gabe said awkwardly as the other members of their lunch table soon joined them.

"Yeah it does, I never realized how long your hair is" Vanessa commented while she opened her soda bottle.

With Spinelli's hair always being tied up it was nearly impossible to tell how long it actually was. Now it could be seen that her long dark hair actually reached just above her hips and was longer than her friends had believed.

"Thanks" Spinelli said in a grateful yet irritated voice which dropped the conversation and turned it to some other topic.

* * *

Today was the day, the final day of handball. Randall still isn't great or even good for that matter but there is only so much that you can teach a person in three days, however today Randall was not the worst aspect of Vince's team.

It was halfway through class; Vince's team was ahead in their game 4 to 1. It was no secret that Jessica wasn't feeling well, she said that she was sure she had caught her sister's stomach bug. But that aside she insisted on playing and didn't seem to be having too much trouble keeping up so the team paid very little attention to her. The teacher's whistle blew ending the game, Vince and his team swapped places with the third team who had been waiting on the bench to go in and play. Vince sat with an exhausted thud first only for Jessica to join him, eyes wide and face pale except for her cheeks which were flushed a bright red color.

"Are you sure you can play?" Vince questioned her knowing very well that she should not be playing; she shook her head which almost came as a relief.

"No, I'm sorry but I've got to go to the nurse. I'm about to throw up" She answered him

"Are you serious or are you kidding?" Vince asked, it was a really stupid question but he didn't think even she would've allowed herself to play if she thought that she may throw up.

"No I am dead serious, I'm going to puke" she answered before proceeding to ask the sub for permission to go see the nurse.

The exact second after Jessica had left the gym Vince approached the sub himself

"Can I go make sure she gets there?" He asked out of concern for his friend, the sub nodded so Vince left the gym.

He found Jessica not even completely down the hallway

"Wait up" He called to her; she stopped and turned to allow him to catch up.

"What are you doing?" She asked wishing he would just go back to class; she was embarrassed enough as it was.

"The sub wanted me to go with you, make sure you got down there" he said pretty much lying about whose idea it was for him to fallow her, he knew she might argue if she knew

With a groan Jessica agreed so the two walked down to the nurse and thankfully Jessica didn't throw up until they got there.

* * *

"Shut up" Joslyn said for maybe the sixth time in the five minutes since study hall began. She was trying to get her English homework done so she wouldn't have to do it at home but Butch was making that increasingly difficult as he would not stop talking about something that had supposedly happened to him last night.

"What you don't like my stories?" Butch teased only for Joslyn to groan

"I like not having homework; don't you have anything to do, homework, college stuff, anything?" She questioned him hoping to just get him off of her back.

"Nope, I have pretty easy classes this year and I'm not going to college" Butch said almost gloating

"You don't have easy classes, you're making up all the hard classes you were supposed to have last year and didn't take" Joslyn scoffed but Butch smirked

"Ok so I'm in two hard classes big deal" he shrugged

"It is a big deal considering this is your fifth year of high school" Joslyn argued only for Butch to roll his eyes

"Like I said I'm not going to college" he reminded his friend who mimicked his previous response and rolled her eyes

"Ok fine but I am so I'd appreciate it if you would stop talking for ten minutes and let me focus" Joslyn asked getting near the end of her patience.

"What are you going to college for?" Butch asked and at this point Joslyn scowled

"Psychology" She answered bluntly but of course Butch was taking a slight pleasure in the slight frustration he was causing Joslyn.

"You're going to be a Psychologist?" He asked almost impressed

"Social worker" Joslyn corrected only for Butch to nod approvingly

"You know social workers generally have some more patience" Butch sarcastically pointed out once Joslyn had returned to her work

"Hence the reason I need to study" she said not even glancing up from her paper.

* * *

After class Carly stopped into the nurse's office to give Jessica her belongings from the locker room.

"Thanks" Jessica muttered from her seat in the waiting area

"No problem, are they sending you home?" Carly asked her friend who nodded

"Thank god, I am so humiliated after puking right in front of Vince. Why did the sub have to send him with me?" Jessica asked wishing desperately that she could've held off until Vince left for her stomach to lose its contents but she wasn't so lucky and had hurled the moment she got through the door earlier.

"Sent him? Vince fallowed you out of his own free will, he asked if he could" Carly revealed to her friend who's head fell into her hands upon hearing the news.

"Why?" She muttered into her hands, she looked up just in time to see Carly shrug

"I don't know but I wouldn't be complaining if I were you, it was really sweet of him" Carly said right as the bell rang

"Talk to you later Jess, I've got to go. Feel better" Carly said before rushing out of the office to avoid being late for her next class.

* * *

Gus and Becky were walking down the street after stopping at Kelso's for ice cream after school. Gus hated to do this, he really hated it. But Vanessa was right; he had to get it over with.

"Hey so uh Vanessa told me that you thought I'd been avoiding you the past couple weeks" Gus awkwardly confessed as he tried to start this conversation.

"Yeah, is everything ok?" Becky asked concerned, this was the first real time together the two of them had had in over a week and she was still a little worried that something was wrong.

"I don't know. It's just that… Becky I love you and you know that but… what happens after this year?" Gus finally asked, Becky at first looked at him in surprise but then seemed to consider what he was saying.

"I guess we separate" she admitted, Gus nodded solemnly

"So what a lot of couples are going to be separated" Becky quickly reminded her boyfriend but he shook his head

"It's different with us. I want to stay in the military for most of my life like my dad and you, you want to be a teacher which generally means that you can't be constantly moving around" Gus said only for Becky to give him a strange look

"Ok hang on, you're talking like we plan on getting married" she pointed out, Gus was silent.

Sure it sounds weird when she points it out but the logic of breaking up because they wanted separate things didn't seem wrong in Gus's mind until now.

"Gus, we're only seventeen" Becky said seriously when her boyfriend didn't respond to the comment.

"I know but did you plan on breaking up with me?" Gus asked not really too sure how to phrase that, luckily Becky got what he was trying to say and laughed.

"No but as of right now I don't intend to marry you" she almost joked before becoming serious

"Listen, my sister had never once planed anything for her future and I keep waiting for it to come and bite her in the butt and it just never does. She has Mikey, she's going into the air force, she's the happiest I've ever seen her." Becky began to rant "Look I just think that maybe we should take a page from her book" she suggested

"Which would be what exactly?" Gus questioned

"To not plan, just take what life throws in our way as it comes. If that ends in us breaking up then fine but I don't think now is the right time, I think that for now we can still be together" Becky explained. She didn't want to lose Gus and she had to hand it to Vanessa, the girl never planned out even a single detail for her life and it turned out perfectly.

"We'd only be kidding ourselves" Gus said after a moment's hesitation, as much as he wanted to stay with Becky he really didn't want to worsen the inevitable heartbreak on either of them.

"Maybe, or maybe somehow things will work out" Becky pleaded, Gus was still hesitant but now he figured that maybe, just maybe she was right.

"Ok" he finally agreed only for Becky to smile and kiss him out of joy.


	28. Thanksgiving

"Hi Gretchen" Vanessa greeted nervously when she found the tall girl at her locker

"Um hi" Gretchen awkwardly responded, Vanessa and her although they know each other and did once attend the same sleepover, are hardly friends and rarely speak. They just never have a reason to.

"So um are you doing anything the day before Thanksgiving?" Vanessa asked trying to get to her question, she was not a people person nor was she one to ask for help so to have been put into a position where she needed to do both, it was not her comfort zone.

"I don't think so, why?" Gretchen asked suspiciously

"Well um you see my sister, Mikey and I are working a Thanksgiving dinner at the homeless shelter and we need some help. Gus is coming and I was wondering if maybe you wanted to help out?" Vanessa finally asked. She really was beginning to hate that Gina had left her to basically rebuild their committee but she knew that she had to do it.

"Yeah sure, what time do you need me there?" Gretchen asked as she watched Vanessa's face light up with an expression that could only be described as relief.

"Around one, go through the back door; it goes straight into the kitchen" Vanessa answered still full of joy and relief. Gretchen nodded and after thanking her Vanessa hurried off to get to class.

* * *

After school Spinelli and Menlo both found themselves at their older sibling's apartment. Menlo had come by to take a look at the computer which Taylor claimed was broken beyond repair however she under estimated her little brother who was now halfway done fixing it. While Spinelli was here simply to return a movie she had borrowed from Joey and she wound up on the couch with her nephew while Taylor paced back and forth in the kitchen talking on the phone.

"Well what do you want me to do?" Taylor asked into the phone in a clearly frustrated voice. Menlo, who was sitting at the desk across the room from the couch, looked over his shoulder at Spinelli who returned his confused expression. They both knew that Taylor was speaking to her and Menlo's mother but neither could figure out what the conversation was about.

"I don't know either, just calm down we'll figure out something. Alright bye" Taylor said into the phone before hanging up. Walking back into the living room she let out a groan as she landed with a thud besides Spinelli.

"What was that about?" Menlo asked now sitting sideways in his seat and no longer paying the computer any attention.

"Mom, she's all upset because since she just had her surgery she can't go anywhere for Thanksgiving but she also can't set up the house or cook or do anything to have it at home" Taylor explained. The surgery her mother had recently had was nothing big, she had something wrong with her stomach from what Taylor understood but her recovery was going along slowly and by the looks of things, she would not be up and about by the holiday.

Spinelli would've offered to have Thanksgiving at her house since it was just going to be their three little families anyway but their oven had given out last week and they wouldn't get a new one until the first week of December.

"What if we did the work?" Menlo asked knowing that his father had zero cooking skills

"I thought of that but Joey and I have to go pick up grandma in the morning" Taylor responded, her and Menlo's grandmother lives two hours away and was getting up there in age, to put it nicely, therefor she can't drive anymore. She also can't hear and asks the same questions over and over again so there was no way Taylor was spending the two hour drive back alone in the car with that woman.

Menlo merely shrugged "alright so it'll just be Spinelli and me" he suggested.

Taylor and Menlo each looked to Spinelli for an answer to the not necessarily asked question

"Yeah sure I'll help" Spinelli answered surprised that the two would think she wouldn't.

Taylor's face lit up in a smile as she grabbed the phone from where she had placed it on the coffee table

"I'll call mom" she said as she dialed the numbers to tell her mother that they had figured out a solution.

* * *

"Are you sure one turkey will be enough?" David asked while he and Vanessa were shopping for the dinner at the homeless shelter. It was always difficult to guess how many people were going to show up and with this being the first year of being heavily involved in decision making for both of them they found themselves arguing almost every detail.

"I don't know, on average we serve what, a little over a hundred people? Give or take?" Vanessa asked seeming to be talking more to herself than to David and after a few seconds of consideration she nodded.

"You're right, better get two" she agreed so they each put one in the shopping cart making sure that each bird was a different weight. So long as one was smaller than the other they probably would have enough without a ton of extra's and it was cheaper than getting two big turkeys.

"Where does that put us with the money?" Vanessa questioned as the two of them walked through the store.

David chuckled at her "would you stop asking me every time we put something in the cart?" He jokingly asked of her

"We're fine" he answered after a minute, not giving her the exact balance which he knew annoyed her but that only gave him more enjoyment.

Vanessa blew her bangs from her face in annoyance but continued walking; she knew that she was being a pain in the neck. They had spent almost the entire week fundraising which she hated more than anything. Not that she hates fund raising but considering that their method of it consisted of sitting at a table outside of the community center in the freezing cold selling hot chocolate while listening to Trent whine, it could easily feel more like torture. But they had raised a good amount of money, enough to buy what couldn't be donated for the dinner.

"Hey so Gina said she might stop by during dinner" David informed his teenaged friend who rolled her eyes

"What she wants to make sure I don't fail?" Vanessa asked only for David to laugh

"Nah I think she just wants to talk with whoever shows up, she'll tell her stories to anyone who will listen" He remarked but when Vanessa didn't respond he realized that she was genuinely worried about this.

"Hey if Gina was worried about you she'd show up while we were cooking" he tried to reassure Vanessa but she only offered him a weak smile in response.

She knew that she shouldn't worry. They had enough volunteers and she had everything else under control but the fear of messing up her first project as the leader was still ever present in her mind and she knew that until Thanksgiving was over, it wouldn't go away.

* * *

If there is one thing that Vince hates more than being sick, it's being sick on a school break. Today is the first day of Thanksgiving break and so far Vince has spent it lying in bed doing nothing but coughing and sneezing.

"I hate this" Vince muttered to himself after blowing his nose for maybe the tenth time that hour.

He threw the tissue into a plastic bag hanging from his bedpost which he was using as a trash bag. Vince knew that he probably wouldn't be leaving his room tomorrow and would have to settle for leftovers for Thanksgiving dinner, not the best way to spend the holiday.

* * *

During the preparation for the Thanksgiving dinner at the homeless shelter Vanessa learned one thing, no matter what your position is the whole project is still nothing but chaos. So far the turkey's had gone into the oven late, Trent had cut himself twice and Mikey had been sent to the store an hour ago because David and Vanessa had forgotten cinnamon for the apple pie and they were figuring out that they needed an extra cookie mix. Then to make things worse Vanessa was ready to murder her sister. They had been working for only two and a half hours now and Becky had not shut up once with the most hurtful and obnoxious jokes that she could think of. All day Vanessa had been hearing it

"Careful you don't want to disappoint Gina" Becky had mocked on the car ride to the shelter, not even remotely aware of how afraid of that Vanessa really was.

Then there was the whole day "Remind me again why I'm here?" she kept asking over and over again like some kind of child.

It was bothering Vanessa to no end, she was so stressed about this dinner that she had nearly broken down in tears the previous night and Becky was only making it hundred times worse. Therefor it was only a matter of time before Vanessa finally snapped and while she was mashing the pot of potatoes, that time came.

She was just moving the beater around in the pot when she noticed Becky sitting on a stool in the corner doing absolutely nothing. Vanessa shut off the beater so that Becky would hear her

"Becky" Vanessa said getting her sister's attention "can you cut up some green beans for the casserole?" She asked

"Yeah I'm just taking a two minute break" Becky said to which Vanessa nodded and returned to her work. She had no problem with it however Becky was still sitting there when the potatoes were finished

"Becky can you cut the green beans?" Vanessa asked again knowing that she should've seen this coming, this is the very reason that Becky and Gina don't get along; Becky actually has no interest in these events and only comes because her parents force her so she often avoids work at all costs.

Rolling her eyes and groaning Becky got up from her stool "why am I here again?" She grumbled under her breath but Vanessa heard it, and she'd had enough.

"Because we need the help" Vanessa answered sharply, Becky only scoffed

"We? No you need the help" she retorted as Vanessa stood there with her arms crossed

"You're the idiot who took over this stupid charity project. You want so much to prove you can handle this responsibility that you don't realize you can't. Tonight this entire dinner's going to fail and you're going to come home crying that you weren't good enough because, and don't take this the wrong way, you're not! Gina and the others abandoned this thing and set you up for failure and now you're just going to make fools of us!" Becky shouted. The entire kitchen came to a standstill as Becky spoke angrily and Vanessa's face twisted into one filled with anger, tears, and fury.

"Go home Becky" Vanessa finally ordered through gritted teeth

Everyone watched Becky waiting for her argument but she was too surprised to say anything

"I'm just telling you the truth" Becky said but Vanessa stared her down

"I don't care. It's obvious that you don't want to be here so go home" Vanessa said in an almost deadly voice. She then dug the key to her and Becky's car out of her pocket and tossed it to Becky who caught it with practiced skill.

Then Becky left.

* * *

To say that things went better for Spinelli and Menlo the next day would be a lie. True nobody had kicked anybody out of the house yet but their attempt at a casserole burned and they were currently arguing over how to prepare the turkey, or rather who would it.

"I am not touching turkey guts, and since when do you have a problem with guts?" Menlo questioned his sister in law who was also refusing to clean the bird.

"I don't but I draw the line at severed heads!" Spinelli snapped back

"It's not a severed head" Menlo argued

"It's close enough" Spinelli fought back and this went on for maybe another five minutes before Menlo's father grew so annoyed with listening to the teenagers that he came in and gutted the turkey himself.

After that, things went relatively well, nothing else burned severely and the dinner itself was a success. Of course Menlo's grandmother would not stop asking questions and then subsequently ask for the answers to be repeated.

* * *

"So what you're not going to talk to me?" Becky questioned after their family dinner and Vanessa sat on the floor in the living room against a wall, picking her nails while their father, uncles and cousins watched the football game.

"Baby" Becky muttered the insult but it ignited a fire inside of Vanessa who stood and dragged her sister through the house and out the back door.

"What do you want me to say?" Vanessa demanded coldly

Becky didn't really have an answer for that; she just wanted Vanessa to say something. The two of them hadn't spoken since yesterday and it's not like her sister to hold a grudge overnight.

"Look I'm sorry for what I said-" Becky began only to be cut off

"No you're not" Vanessa interrupted, Becky just glared at her.

"Look I don't care if you want to keep volunteering or not but it is not your place to tell me what I'm capable of" Vanessa spat, all of her pushed aside rage coming to the surface.

"I just didn't want you to be crushed when the dinner failed-" Becky defended knowing that she had been right and the service hadn't exactly gone smoothly.

Vanessa now felt as though she were about to cry and that had been bad enough last night when Mikey found her crying in the supplies closet. But now she managed to hold herself together long enough to tell Becky what she really had to say.

"Well if that's what you were doing then I'm not the only failure. Last night was my only shot to prove that I could do it and I genuinely believed that I could. For the first time in my life I thought that maybe I actually could do something somewhat impressive and then you, my own sister, screamed at me that I couldn't! You crushed me and then when you were right..." Vanessa trailed off, tears starting to roll down her face

"It destroyed me" she uttered before rushing back inside to lock herself in the room which she and Becky share.


	29. Different kinds of love

"Well you were kind of hard on her" Gus carefully told his girlfriend. With the school break over they were back to walking the halls before homeroom and Becky was currently explaining that things between her and Vanessa still weren't totally back to normal.

"I guess but how long can she stay mad?" Becky questioned, she and Vanessa had been fighting all their lives, it was just who they were. In the last few years however, big fights had become more and more rare. But even when they were common, Vanessa never stayed mad this long.

"Did you apologize?" Gus asked only for his girlfriend to look at him in disbelief

"Of course i did" she answered, annoyed that he could think she didn't.

Gus only shrugged "Then you did all you can do" He said which Becky half agreed with, her apology had been more of just explaining herself and now she was thinking she should try something else.

* * *

Spinelli wasn't really sure of how it had happened, over the four days off of school she and Damion had hung out twice and today when he put his arm around her in the hall she didn't think anything of it until ten minutes after he walked her to math before leaving for his own class. But she had stopped thinking about it by lunch time and, much to her surprise, Damion showed up at her table five minutes in.

"Sup guys" Damion said casually as he took the only available seat which was between Spinelli and Gabe

"Hey" Spinelli, Gabe and Vanessa all said in something close to unison, at this point in school they all knew that skipping class was daily occurrence for some people.

"Skipping class?" T.J. asked as if to confirm what everybody knew, and sure enough Damion nodded.

Everyone continued to go about their lunch and conversations, despite the fact that nobody really knew why Damion had selected their table to hide at. Vanessa sort of knew the guy but they were't great friends, she didn't have a problem with him, in fact she thought he was a great guy. But they didn't talk much. Gabe knew him a little better and was pretty good friends with him but they never sat together at lunch. T.J. and Gus hardly even knew who Damion was which left Spinelli as the only member of the table with a reasonable guess as to why Damion was here.

"Roberts! This isn't your lunch! Get to class!" Finster's shrill voice shouted after ten minutes when she finally spotted Damion

"Really? There's only five minutes left" Damion muttered as he got up from his chair, ignoring the chuckling that was endlessly coming from both Gabe and Vanessa.

"Alright guess I'll see you guys later, bye Ash" He said then gave Spinelli a small kiss on the cheek before leaving.

"Bye" Spinelli said as he walked away.

Once he was gone everyone just continued on with what they had been doing, well almost everyone. Spinelli was picking at her little bag of chips pretending not to feel T.J. eyes burning a hole through her, but after less than a minute she couldn't take it anymore.

"What?" She asked, trying her best not to snap at him.

T.J. shook his head "nothing" he muttered turning back to his own lunch.

He had to admit that it did sort of bother him that Spinelli didn't tell him she had a boyfriend but he couldn't tell her that. The conversation from the first day of school had already returned to his mind so he kept his mouth shut, she had been so cool about it when she found out the hard way about him and Ashley, he owed her the same respect.

* * *

"So your boyfriend?" Butch asked for possibly the nine hundredth time since the beginning of the school year.

"For the last time Nate is not my boyfriend!" Joslyn exclaimed, once again uselessly trying to complete her homework during study hall.

"The last time? So if i ask you again…?" Butch sarcastically asked, Joslyn groaned in response

"Butch" she said getting extremely annoyed but at this point that was normal

"What?" He asked innocently, Joslyn rolled her eyes

"Shut up" she said to him but of course he didn't

"I'm just saying that i've seen you around school with Nate and the two of you make a great couple" he said while Joslyn tried her best to ignore him.

Truth be told she actually did feel like she may have some small feeling for Nate, but they weren't anything she planned to pursue.

"You're blushing" Butch teased when he snapped her out of her thoughts

She blushed a little harder at the comment, but this was mostly out of embarrassment

"You've named three good things about me, it's hard not to" she said, Butch had been listing reasons he believed that she and Nate would be a good couple and this involved saying a few nice things about her, apparently.

Butch grinned one of his signature, sly, grins.

"Well good to know you're listening" he said so naturally Joslyn rolled her eyes again.

"Whatever but Nate and me, not happening anytime soon" she said knowing that the conversation was still far from over.

"Why not?" Butch asked, genuinely interested.

Joslyn sighed

"Because one i don't like him, two even if i did he doesn't like me, three even if he did he's too much of a wimp to ask a girl out and four, i just don't see it working out" she ranted hoping that maybe Butch would finally back off but of course he didn't.

"Why wouldn't it work out?" Butch asked, Joslyn sighed but decided to tell him the truth.

"Because honestly, i can't be in a relationship. Two years ago my dad left and this girl i'd been friends with since elementary school just stopped talking to me. I hate to admit it Butch but i don't trust people, and i don't want to let someone that close to me" she explained. She really did hate this about herself and truthfully had it been just Monica who hurt her she probably wouldn't have these issues, but her dad was a different story.

Butch seemed to think about it for a minute and Joslyn thought that he was actually going to stop bugging her, but of course he didn't.

"Well sorry to hear about that but it only helps my argument. You said he hated you until the end of last year because your friend hurt him, sounds to me like he's got some trust issues too" Butch said and for once Joslyn considered his words.

It was true, Nate had been affected by Monica ditching them, more than he should've been. It made her wonder, who else had left Nate?

* * *

"Hey" Becky said to Vanessa as she sat down next to her sister on their bus seat

"Hey" Vanessa replied solemnly, her voice was not happy or sarcastic as usual and instead just sounded lonely and vacant.

Becky sighed, unsure of how to start this

"Vanessa I'm sorry-" she began only for her sister to cut her off

"No you're not" she said, just like she had on Thanksgiving.

Becky's eye narrowed "Yes i am. I'm not sorry for what i said but i am sorry for how i said it." Becky said, Vanessa looked up at this, seeming to be surprised by what Becky said but not angered.

"Look i'm not sorry for telling you that the dinner was hopeless but i am sorry for saying it in front of everyone and for saying it so bluntly." Becky apologized, Vanessa smiled a small smile, seeing that her sister really was sorry for what had happened.

"Apology accepted and sorry i kind of over reacted" Vanessa said causing Becky to giggle.

* * *

Ashley A. and T.J. were watching a movie at T.J.'s house later one that night and T.J. told her about the incident at lunch.

"T.J. you didn't tell her about us" Ashley reminded her boyfriend who sighed

"Yeah i know i'm a hypocrite. But that was only because i didn't know how to tell her, i just can't see why she would keep a relationship from me" he admitted, his voice heavy with guilt. He knew that he had no right to be upset, not after Spinelli handled this exact situation so maturely.

"Maybe she didn't know how to tell you" Ashley suggested, T.J. hadn't expected her of all people to defend Spinelli but then again he hadn't expected her to get Spinelli a birthday present either. At first he had thought the gift was a joke but Ashley had assured him it wasn't, she said that she truly believed Spinelli would like it.

Ashley had to admit that since the school year started she had grown rather sympathetic towards her old enemy. That angry tomboy who had too much pride Spinelli used to be was gone and in her place was a teenager who wanted to change but didn't know how, it was like she decided to grow up years after everyone else.

"Why wouldn't she know how to tell me? I didn't know how to tell her because, well you and her have sort of a bad history, Damion and I have barely even met" T.J. pointed out only for Ashley to roll her eyes, boys could be so clueless.

"Maybe because she's never had a boyfriend before, or because the last time she told you a guy asked her out you told her he was bad news" Ashley suggested, she had heard about the Eric Baker incident.

"He was" T.J. argued still not having forgotten last Halloween

"Still, she was probably afraid that you wouldn't trust her judgment" Ashley said to which T.J. didn't respond, Ashley looked down at her lap.

"Why do you care so much anyway?" She asked her boyfriend although she already knew the answer. She had hoped that his feelings for Spinelli had subsided since elementary school but it was clear they hadn't, and probably never would.

"She's my best friend" T.J. answered but Ashley shook her head

"No, she's more than that" she said, T.J. looked at her in surprise

"Ashley-" he began but he was cut off, and he was happy he was because truthfully, he does still have feelings for Spinelli.

"It's ok, i kind of thought you did the whole time" Ashley confessed, for a moment the two were silent.

"She has a boyfriend" T.J. said but of course they both knew that

"They'll break up, and when they do we can't be together" Ashley said, this hurt both of them but at the same time it was a relief to them both.

"So are we done?" T.J. asked but he knew they were, he knew it was over.

"Yeah, we're done" Ashley answered him.


	30. Snow days

"Snowing yet?" Joslyn questioned Nate when he walked into he comic shop covered in the little white crystals.

"Only a foot, hope you're not walking home" Nate sarcastically answered his friend, he shivered as he made his way to the new releases shelf and began scanning for a certain book.

"Only if the roads close" Joslyn answered.

Once again she began to wonder about Nate's past. Ever since her conversation with Butch almost two months ago she had been wanting to ask Nate why he had been so hurt by Monica, she was just too afraid to.

After a few minutes of looking Nate walked over to the counter with a comic and an action figure, Joslyn smirked at the toy.

"You know i gave my cousin the same action figure for christmas, he's three" she joked only for Nate to stick out his tongue as she rang everything up

"And how many do have yourself?" He asked while giving her the money, she giggled

"Alright you got me there" she admitted, putting his stuff and receipt in a bag before handing it to him.

"See you later" Nate said as he left

"Bye" Joslyn said with a smile, watching her friend leave the shop.

Once he was gone she let out a sigh "next time" she promised herself, for maybe the hundredth time.

* * *

Spinelli, or Ash as Damion had nicknamed her and everybody just went along with, had been at the movies with Damion and the two were walking home when the snow started. It was coming down fast and was almost at a foot by the time they got to Ash's house.

"Alright maybe we should've driven" Ash muttered, they had had that discussion earlier but it was nice at the time and Ash had wanted to walk, now she was wishing Damion had put up more of a fight.

Damion only chuckled "Eh it's alright" he said with a shrug.

For a moment it was quiet, until Ash's mother appeared on the front steps of the house.

"Hey kids I've got cocoa!" She exclaimed, seeming to ignore the fact that the two teenagers were only a few feet from the house and shouted as if they were across the street.

Ash rolled her eyes but smiled at her mother's loud voice as she and Damion went inside, lately things between her and her mother hadn't been so bad and she was loving being able to not dread coming home.

* * *

Gretchen was in her room working on some homework. She didn't have much left to do and that was when she heard a thud. Confused she looked up, it sounded as if something had bounced off her window. Hesitantly she stood up from her desk and as she made her way closer to the window a snowball came and broke against it. Now even more confused Gretchen looked out the window and what she saw made her heart stop. There, standing down in her front yard was Mundy. Gretchen blinked once to be sure that he was really there before she took off in a full sprint across her room, almost running into the closed door. She ran down the hall and practically threw herself down the stairs before rushing out the front door, as a kid she never would have believed that one day she would be so happy to see Mundy of all people. But she ran to him, throwing her arms around his neck as he picked her up and spun her around, it had been less than a year since they last saw each other but it felt like forever.

"I'm only home for two weeks" he told her after he finally put her down, she just smiled

"I don't care" she said through her grin, she was just happy to see him.

* * *

It was later on that night, closer to six, when Joslyn brought Brandon sledding in the back of the school and ran into none other than Nate.

_Ok when i said next time i didn't think that meant tonight_ she thought to herself as she pulled her little cousin on the neon orange sled behind her.

"Hey" she said as she approached Nate who turned and smiled

"Hey" he said back

"Hey Joslyn" another voice called, Vince's voice. He and Patrick were kneeling about halfway up the hill packing down a mixture of hard snow and ice into a jump.

"Building a jump?" She questioned Nate, although she knew the answer

"You going off it?" Nate asked her back only for Joslyn to roll her eyes with a grin

"My aunt will kill me if i take Brandon off a jump" she responded

"Go down once, I'll watch your cousin" Nate challenged knowing that Joslyn would in fact trust him with her cousin for five minutes.

"Fine" Joslyn agreed, while Brandon who was getting board, started to whine

"I'll call you over when we're ready" Nate told his friend so she proceeded to take her cousin down the hill in their sled.

* * *

Despite the cold Gretchen and Mundy went out for ice cream that night, of course Jenny begged to go along and Mundy couldn't say no to his eight year old sister. Faith had opted to stay home, she was lactose intolerant and said she would talk to her brother later. So it was just the three of them. Mundy talked mostly about his time at boot camp but told Gretchen that he would tell her more later, most of his stories were things that he didn't want Jenny hearing. Aside from that Jenny did most of the talking, telling her brother everything that she had been doing in school since he left and she let him in on the secret that Faith had started going out with some guy, of course the three of them knew Faith had probably wanted to tell Mundy herself, or maybe not at all knowing her. But the night was successful and on the ride home, Jenny fell asleep.

"Well sorry if my sister ruined our first real date" Mundy apologized as he drove Gretchen home, of course he knew she didn't care that Jenny had come along.

"So that was a date?" Gretchen asked jokingly, Mundy shrugged

"It was supped to be" he said before pointing with his thumb to the backseat "I knew i shouldn't have mentioned ice cream with her in the room" he laughed and Gretchen laughed along with him

"No it was fun, I'm glad she came" Gretchen said and she was. Being an only child Gretchen liked having Mundy's little sister with them, she never got to be around young children.

"Well I'm glad you had fun but i promise before i leave i will take you out, just me and you" he said to her. He had loved having Jenny there too, he had missed her but he still wanted to have one real date with Gretchen before he had to leave again.

* * *

"Alright Joslyn you're up!" Gabe called as Joslyn was attempting to climb up the steep hill, towing the sled behind her in one hand while using the other to guide her little cousin.

"Coming" she called back but she was moving at a snail's pace, she could go faster but Brandon couldn't.

"It's too hard" Brandon whined as he fell and Joslyn helped him up for the fourth time in the last two minutes.

She looked around, the slope was icy and her cousin really was having a hard time getting his footing. Looking up she saw Nate already standing above her waiting so she brought the sled in front of her

"Can you take this?" She asked him so he reached down and took the string from her.

"Alright Brandon just this once" Joslyn muttered as she picked up the boy, careful to keep her balance as she hurried up the remainder of the hill, which was only a few feet.

Setting her cousin down Joslyn walked the two feet to where her friends were standing, already having lined up their tube.

"Alright, sit here. We've gone down a hundred times and carved the path to go straight to the jump. Now there's an ice patch right behind the jump but you should get enough air to avoid hitting it" Patrick instructed as Joslyn sat down.

"You ready?" Vince asked playfully

"Yup" Joslyn answered and so with that Patrick sent her on her way.

It all happened so fast. Joslyn went shooting down the hill and flying off the jump, literally flying. The guys, who never got more than a few inches to a foot in the air, had forgotten that Joslyn weighed about half of what each of them did. She flew about three feet in the air before she fell from the tube, the boys watched in horror as she hit the ground. A painful scream filled the air, fallowed by another one which came from Brandon. Nate held the toddler back when he tried to run down after his cousin while Patrick and Vince hurried down. The two boys skidded to a stop on the side of hill. Joslyn was lying on her side, crying bloody murder, on the patch of ice.

"Joslyn" Vince exclaimed, reaching for her arm but the moment his finger touched her sleeve she lashed out.

"Get off me!" She screamed, now beginning to pick herself up

"I'm fine" she cried a little less violently.

Patrick grabbed the tube to which Joslyn didn't object but as she stood Vince couldn't help but stare. The entire left side of her face, which had come in contact with the snow and ice, was completely covered in scrapes and cuts. Then, the second she was back on her feet her ankle buckled and she fell again, however this time Vince caught her. He instantly put his arm around around her waist and pulled her arm around his shoulder to keep her up.

"Can you walk?" He asked her

"With this foot" she answered, scuffing the ground with her right foot as her tears began to calm.

Vince helped his friend limp up the hill, of course she was beyond embarrassed by this and didn't say anything except for a murmured thank you the whole way up. The last few feet however, were always the hardest. It was the distance Joslyn had to carry Brandon and Vince couldn't get up while supporting Joslyn but she wasn't three years old like her cousin, he couldn't pick her up to carry her either.

"I can crawl" Joslyn said, perfectly aware of the complicated nature of the situation.

"On ice? No way, you'll just go sliding down" Patrick pointed out, standing above the two.

"You got a better idea?" Joslyn asked him in annoyance but apparently he did.

Carefully moving down the hill just a few inches and held his arms out. Without protesting (which she really wanted to do) Joslyn removed her arm from around Vince's shoulders and Patrick grabbed under her arms and dragged her up the remaining few feet as if she were a rag doll.

Once at the top he helped steady her on her right foot and before any questions could be asked Brandon ran right into her right leg crying. The sudden impact began to knock Joslyn off balance but she quickly recovered herself and carefully got to a sitting position on the ground.

"I'm alright buddy, calm down" she said to her cousin with a gentle smile as she pulled him into her lap.

"Thanks guy" she said to Patrick and Vince, and Nate who was coming from his truck with a paper towel for her face.

"No problem, you going to be alright?" Vince asked only for Joslyn to nod, whipping away the tears left on her face.

"Yeah, the ankle injury is old. It'll be fine, go have fun" she assured them and so with a glance and a shrug both Patrick and Vince went back to sledding, Nate however did not.

Instead Nate sat himself on the ground across from Joslyn and handed her the paper towel to wipe the blood off her face.

"Thanks" she said taking it and trying to find the blood but it was hard to feel. Her whole face stung with the cold and any blood on it seemed to have frozen to her skin. But sure enough when she pulled the paper towel away there was at least a little bit of blood on it.

"You know old wounds take the longest to heal" Nate joked, quoting one of his and Joslyn's favorite comic book hero's. Joslyn gave an amused smile

"Speaking of which I've been meaning to ask you, when Monica left our group, why did it hurt you so much?" She asked

At first Nate just looked at her as if he didn't understand, but of course he did. His reason however was stupid.

"It's not nearly as bad as your dad leaving" he confessed but she only shrugged

"It still hurt you" she said and so Nate sighed.

"I moved to this town in third grade and being the new kid, sucked. But i made some good friends on my first couple days and life was pretty good, until my second month of school. My so called friends decided to play a game at recess that involved tying me to the flag pole, apparently that was the whole game and the janitor had to cut me free like four hours later" Nate explained, it was such an old story and he really wasn't mad about it anymore but the memory of waiting for his friends to come back, that still stung.

Joslyn reached over her cousin's head and placed a sympathetic hand on Nate's shoulder, her embarrassed friend looked up at her.

"It's not stupid" she assured him, as if she had been reading his thoughts.

Nate had never believed in perfect moments. He had had a small crush on Joslyn for awhile now but the whole time he was so unsure, until that moment. In that one moment his mix of feelings towards her became clear, he really did like her. Maybe it was the fact that they were both broken on the inside or the fact that she didn't pity him or think what had hurt him wasn't worth being hurt over, she truly understood that it had hurt. For a second Nate actually wanted to kiss her but he shook the thought away, they were friends and besides it would just be awkward to kiss her for the first time while she had a three year old curled up in her lap.

When Nate didn't say anything Joslyn looked down at Brandon, who was finally starting to calm down.

"You want to go home?" She asked him and he nodded

"Alright" she said, pushing him off her lap and getting to her feet, putting the majority of her weight on her right foot.

"See you" she said to Nate as she grabbed her sled and limped to her car.

* * *

Ash went to bed that night thinking about the day. It had been great, her parents both loved Damion and he was such a gentleman both to them and to her. She remembered how he had offered her his jacket as they walked home but she refused

_Why did i do that? _She wondered to herself and figured it was because some aspects of her tomboy personality still needing to be discarded.

For once everything was right, she liked how she looked and she had her mother's approval on it. She had been accepted to a college she wanted to go to, her life was going great.

So why did it feel like something was wrong?


	31. Questions and answers

"So do you want us to stop calling you Ash?" Vanessa asked her friend when she found her sitting alone on the swings at the park.

Ash, or Spinelli, or whatever her friends were calling her now only grunted

"I don't care" she muttered with a shrug as Vanessa took a seat on the empty swing next to her.

"Come on you know that's not true" Vanessa said but Spinelli just continued to stare at the ground.

"Ok, call me Ash" she replied sort of happy to have a friend who could see right through her.

Vanessa only nodded

"How did you find me?" Ash asked, Vanessa shrugged

"Took a guess, I go to the skatepark to think. I like it cause it's not too far from people but at the same time it's always deserted. Figured you'd go for a similar place" she answered. Vanessa and Ash, they were actually a lot alike. Not only were they both known as the tomboys of their group of friends but they both dealt with problems in the same way, silently.

"So you broke up with Damion, and just a week before prom" Vanessa stated, she knew that was the reason that Ash was here looking so confused and lost.

"Yeah, things just didn't work out" Ash admitted awkwardly

"Can i ask why?" Vanessa questioned but she didn't give her friend a chance to answer.

"I mean no offense Ash but he's a great guy. He's smart, he's good looking, he's really nice-" Vanessa began to list off before she was interrupted

"I know he's a great guy" Ash groaned which prompted Vanessa to stop talking

"He's exactly the guy my parents would want me to be with and i really like him but…" Ash trailed off, she didn't exactly know how to say this next part.

"But what?" Vanessa asked, her friend sighed.

"But he's not the kind of guy i need" Ash confessed. Vanessa, of course, knew what she meant but decided to ask anyway

"And what kind of guy do you need?" She asked but Ash shrugged

"I don't know. But Damion, he's one of those guys who treats you like a princess and compliments you and lets you pick what to do. I know that anyone would be lucky to have someone like him but i need a guy who's going to tell me to shut up every once in a while and drag me somewhere i say i don't want to go" Ash explained and she caught the smirk on Vanessa's face.

"Someone like T.J.?" She asked, Ash was about to deny the accusation, but really what was the point?

Vanessa snorted a laugh "Ash everybody knows, I know you're waiting for him to make the first move and all but maybe you should. You don't want to miss your chance" Vanessa advised before getting up.

"I need to get going, see you later" Vanessa said before leaving the swings.

* * *

"So what are you going to do?" Vince questioned T.J. as the two sat at the Detweiler's kitchen table eating pizza for dinner.

"I don't know, I mean i want to ask her but what if she says no?" T.J. asked, the two were discussing their plans for the prom. Vince planned on asking Jessica Smith first thing tomorrow morning while T.J. was still trying to figure out if he was going to ask Spinelli or not.

"She did just break up with her boyfriend" Vince pointed out

"So you think it's to soon to ask her out?" T.J. questioned with just the slightest hint of remorse in his voice.

Vince thought about it for a minute

"I think that if a girl breaks up with her boyfriend right before the prom it's because she's interested in somebody else" he finally answered T.J.

"You think she likes another guy?" T.J. asked hesitantly but Vince only growled in frustration

"No man she likes you! She's liked you for as long as you've liked her which is like forever!" Vince nearly shouted, he was getting so fed up with T.J. and Spinelli's relationship going absolutely nowhere that he was ready to quite literally push them together.

Taking a breath to calm himself Vince sighed "look Teej, i understand that you and Ash have been friends since before preschool and you don't want to endanger that friendship but it's the end of senior year. If you like her then you need to make your move now because if you don't, you're going to lose her" he explained hoping that his words would get through the thick skull of his best friend.

* * *

Vanessa and Mikey had made planned to go to the prom together, after all they were dating and had been for over a year now so it was kind of a given. Therefor Vanessa was pleasantly surprised when she opened her locker the next morning to find a note with a red rose attached to it taped to the inside of the locker's door. Smiling and not even caring that Mikey had asked somebody to help him break into her locker, since she knew he lacked the skills to do it, she took the note.

_"__Can't wait for prom but i still feel like i should officially ask you, so will you go to prom with me? Love; Mikey" _Vanessa felt her heart flutter as she looked at the rose and laughed.

"What the heck am i supposed to do with this?" She asked herself wondering where she could possibly put it where it won't die.

* * *

With the first semester over Vince no longer had any classes with Jessica but that doesn't mean he didn't know where to find her. Her friend Carly was in his early american literature class so he asked her where Jessica would be at the end of the day, Carly told him she would be coming out of art class. So with the art rooms on the first floor and his literature class on the third at the sound of the bell Vince sprinted down the stairs to the first floor. He ran through the hallways, trying to make it to the art room before Jessica left and fortunately for Vince she was one of the last ones to leave.

"Hey Jessica" He said as she came out of the room

"Hey Vince" she said back, stopping against the wall to talk to him.

"So uh are you, are you going to the prom?" He nervously asked, had he been less nervous he would've noticed that her face brightened.

"I was planning on it but you know, don't have a date" she answered him, not being subtle.

"Oh well um actually i was wondering if maybe you would want to go with me?" Vince nervously sputtered out

Jessica grinned "sure, i'd love to" she agreed

* * *

Nate had the same idea about asking someone at the end of the day. He waited for Joslyn at the main doors to the school as everyone was leaving and it wasn't long before she passed by.

"Joslyn wait up!" He called causing her to turn and let him catch up with her

"Nate, I've been looking everywhere for you!" She exclaimed with a smile on her face

"Really?" He asked suddenly grinning himself

"Yeah, i got asked to prom!" She excitedly told him.

His face fell before he could stop it and of course she noticed

"Are you alright?" She asked, obviously trying and failing to hide her smile.

"Yeah, yeah i'm fine" he lied.

He wasn't fine, how could he be? Ever since that night sledding a few months ago his feelings for Joslyn had been eating away at him more and more with every passing day. Every time the two were alone together he found himself fighting the urge to kiss her and so today he had planned to finally do something about it, but apparently he was too late.

"So uh who asked you?" He awkwardly questioned, the beaming smile instantly returning to Joslyn's face.

"Butch Alberts" she answered, mentally Nate went through a whole slew of faces before remembering the right one, he almost hated that Butch was a pretty ok guy from what he knew.

"Alright well see you at the dance i guess, bye" he said before heading off to his bus.

He wanted to tell her. He wanted so badly to tell her that he likes her but how could he? She was so happy, he couldn't remember the last time he had seen her smile like that. As he stepped onto the bus and took his seat he realized that he could, it was sophomore year. That night at the fair, just hours before her dad left. That had been the last time he saw her face light up the way it just had. Sure she still smiled after her dad left, sure she had been more than capable of hiding it for months after it happened but her smile; it hadn't been so bright since. She hadn't been the same since that night and now, now she was. Nate couldn't take that away from her.

* * *

T.J. and Ash had gone to Kelso's and were just sitting at the ice cream bar when T.J. finally grew brave enough to bring up the dreaded prom topic.

"So now that you and Damion are over, are you still going to prom?" He asked only for his friend to chuckle

"Teej it's the prom, of course i'm going" she answered, silently praying that he was about to make his move on her.

"Oh well too bad that you have to go without a date" he said, suddenly losing all confidants.

"Yeah, too bad" Ash muttered as her heart fell.

A few more moments passed in silence before Ash looked over at her friend

"T.J. what are we doing?" She asked, he looked up at her in surprise

"What do you mean?" He asked sheepishly, like he really didn't have a clue.

"I mean we've been running around in the same circle for ten years and i'm sick of it. I mean seriously how long can we keep this up?" She questioned only for T.J. to look at her dumbfounded.

_Is this really happening? _He thought_ Is she really talking about what i think she is?_

When he didn't say anything Ash narrowed her eyes and stood up, leaving her money for the ice cream at the counter.

"You know what? Call me when you figure out what you want to do Teej, but i'm done playing this game" she deadpanned before leaving the little store.


	32. The prom

"Grandpa needs some help, i'm not going to cancel on him" Vanessa said as she rummaged around the room she and Becky share while Becky lay awake in her bed arguing with her sister.

"He doesn't need the help today, what happens if you miss prom?" Becky pointed out while Vanessa stepped behind the changing curtain the two of them had set up years ago.

"I won't. Look it's four-thirty in the morning, if i leave within the next half hour then i'll be there by seven. It's not going to take me long to clear his yard and factoring in the off chance the old man will actually want to talk to me i can be out of there by ten at the latest and make it back an hour before the nail appointment you scheduled" Vanessa explained as she got dressed then came out from behind the curtain.

Her and Becky's grandfather lives alone up in the mountains, a two hour drive away. A bad storm had recently hit and while there was no damage to the man's house, fallen tree branches were scattered all over his yard and were to heavy for him to move by himself.

Rolling her eyes and groaning, Becky lay back down to try and get some more sleep before her day began.

"You better make it" she grumbled as Vanessa left

"Yeah yeah see you later" Vanessa said annoyed with her sister's constant worrying.

* * *

"Good for you" was all Joslyn had to say when Ash went over her house the next day and ended up telling her about the conversation with T.J. the previous night.

"You don't think i screwed up?" Ash questioned her friend, her stomach still in knots from even thinking about it. She couldn't believe she had said that, that she had basically confessed her feelings to T.J.

"Dude it was getting painful to watch you two awkwardly dance around your feelings. I don't care if you didn't give him a chance to respond just thank god one of you said something" Joslyn responded which caused Ash to smile, apparently her friends were relieved that she had said something.

Of course Joslyn could see that her friend was still anxious about what had happened and who could blame her? What she said there was no coming back from and T.J. still hadn't called or anything.

"Come on, we need to pick up Becky" Joslyn said grabbing her keys and attempting to take her friend's mind off of last night.

"What about Vanessa?" Ash asked as the two of them left the house

"She called before you got here, guess she hit traffic getting to her grandpa's" Joslyn answered.

* * *

"Well I've already missed the hair and nail appointment, oh well" Vanessa muttered to herself as she started up the chainsaw in order to cut up the last branch which was way to big for her to carry.

"This is a lot more fun" she muttered before cutting the branch in half, and then cut each half in half.

After she had finished dragging the wood to the wood pile she headed back to the house where she found her grandpa standing on the front deck with his coffee and a smirk on his face.

"I remember when you used to sit in my living room playing tea party with your dolls, that was back when you knew how to act like a lady" he grumbled which of course made Vanessa roll her eyes, her grandpa was a very old fashion man and clearly wasn't thrilled that his teenage granddaughter had to come clear the storm debris from his yard.

Still Vanessa forced herself to laugh

"Come on grandpa i've never been a lady, even back then i spilt the tea all over myself" she joked

"That's true" he said

A quiet moment passed and when Vanessa realized that her Grandpa wasn't going to say anything else she broke the silence, suddenly grateful that the old man hated company.

"Alright well I'm going to get going" she said

"Alright, bye kid" her grandpa said to her, almost cutting her off.

"Bye grandpa" she said before heading down the driveway to her car.

* * *

T.J. hadn't spoken to Ash since the previous night, he didn't know what to say. All this time she liked him, she really did like him. Sure he had heard that she liked him, but he always thought that it was just the other guys trying to mess with him. But he was wrong and now maybe it was even more pathetic that he was at the prom, avoiding her. He had seen her pass by and tried not to stare but he couldn't help it, he had never seen her look so beautiful. She was wearing a long purple dress with little diamond studs along the waist and straps. Her hair had been curled in a half up, half down style and he could see that she had even done her nails. Not to mention she was wearing like four inch heels which T.J. couldn't believe she knew how to walk in.

"So how long are you planning on avoiding her?" Vince questioned, T.J. hadn't even notice that his best friend had been standing next to him.

"Until after graduation, then I''ll just drive as far away as possibly" T.J. muttered

"Teej" Vince sighed, he had heard about Ash's outburst and although he was beyond grateful that she had done something, he was still ready to strangle T.J..

"I don't know Vince but i can't tell her how i feel! Problem is i can't lie to her either" T.J. explained

"Why can't you tell her how you feel?" Vince inquired, all this time he had thought T.J. was just being a wimp but could there be an actual reason for his hesitation?

"Every girl I've dated, from the start i knew it wasn't going to work out. But Ash, we've been through everything together. She was ripped out of my life for two years and when she came back, i don't know i just felt like i never wanted to let her go again" T.J. admitted. He liked Ash, heck he might even love her, but he was so afraid of things not working out between them.

"Then don't" Vince advised before walking away to find Jessica, leaving T.J. to his thoughts.

* * *

An hour into the prom and still nobody had seen Vanessa so Mikey stepped outside and called her.

"Hello" Her voice came on the other end of the cell phone.

Instantly Mikey became worried, his girlfriend's voice was laced with tears

"Are you ok?" He questioned in concern as he listen to her cry

"I'm sorry Mikey. My car broke down and it's going to be at least another hour before the tow truck gets here… I'm not, not going to make it to prom. I'm sorry" Vanessa choked out over the phone.

"No Vanessa don't be sorry, do you want me to come and get you?" Mikey offered

"No, no have fun." Vanessa answered, the tears still evident in her voice.

"Vanessa it's not much fun without you" Mikey tried to tell her and despite her crying he swore he heard her at least try to laugh.

"Seriously Mikey it'll take you longer to get here, I'll see you tomorrow" she sniffled

"Ok, see you" Mikey sadly said into the phone before they hung up.

After hanging up Mikey decided that he may as well tell Becky that Vanessa wasn't coming at all so he made his way back inside and located his girlfriends sister. After he told her Becky was quiet, her mind racing with an idea.

Mikey had expected her to be slightly upset or say she was sorry to hear this but instead she turned to him with mischievous eyes

"You know what, why don't we do something Vanessa would do?" She asked but Mikey didn't quite understand the question.

"Do something like what?" He asked as Becky thought

"Something impossible" Becky answered and Mikey grinned.

Vanessa was the queen of impossible tasks, between trying to keep the volunteer committee together and what she did today that much was clear. But it continuously backfired on her when she was just trying to help people, it was time she got some good karma for it.

* * *

By the second hour of prom they had played two slow songs, and both T.J. and Ash had sat out both of them.

"Still waiting?" Joslyn asked, coming off the dance floor and taking the empty seat next to Ash.

"How pathetic is it?" Ash questioned her friend who sighed

"Pretty pathetic" Joslyn admitted only for Ash to groan

"Stop waiting on him" Joslyn encouraged her friend

"I did!" Ash snapped, she had told T.J. how she felt, she just wished that he would say something to her about it.

"I know" Joslyn said quietly, trying to think of something to say.

A minute or two passed and neither girl said anything until Ash decided to get up. She went outside, standing underneath the overhang of the gym she breathed in the cool air of the night and then from behind her, she heard the door.

"Nice night" an all too familiar and all too nervous voice commented, Ash turned to see none other that T.J. Detweiler standing there.

"Thought you were avoiding me" she smirked, T.J. chuckled as he sheepishly rubbed the back of his neck.

"You noticed?" He asked her

"A blind person could've noticed" she joked, half of her mind was currently screaming at her to shut up before she ruined any chances of T.J. making a move on her but she chose to ignore it, he was her best friend and he'd left her in the most uncomfortable position possible for almost twenty four hours now, he deserved a little mocking.

"I'm sorry, it's just, i'm not very good at this" T.J. blurted out nervously

"Oh and i am?" Ash challenged but she had a point, so far her love life had about the same track record as T.J.'s, it wasn't successful.

"Look we're Senior's, in less than a month everything's going to change. We're going to graduate and we're all going to different places" Ash began

"Sounds like this is the worst time to start something" T.J. muttered, he had no idea how to put that but it could've come out worse.

"So when is a good time?" Ash asked and at first T.J. thought the question was rhetorical but she looked at him for his answer. He hesitated of course, he had no idea when it was good time to enter a relationship, to become more than friends.

"I don't know Ash" he admitted but she didn't seem surprised by his response, in fact she gave him a sweet smile.

"You know the way i see it is there's always going to be a reason to just stay friends…" she began, letting herself trail off.

There was no going back now.

She had said it, she had flat out said it and now there was no dancing around it. He couldn't pretend that he didn't pick up on what she was saying and she couldn't pretend he had misunderstood her. Now, for better or for worse, something was going to change.

"I'm sorry i shouldn't have said that" Ash said when T.J. didn't give any response to her last comment. She tried to walk past him and go back inside to hide her embarrassment but he grabbed her wrist.

"No wait" he blurted out so she stopped

"Yes you should have. You're right, we've been going in the same circle for the past ten years and… i don't know what's going to happen but i do know that what we've been doing isn't going to work anymore" T.J. said and for the first time he wasn't afraid.

He didn't care about what could go wrong, the only thing he could imagine going wrong right now was if he had let her get away.

His grip on her wrist slid down to her hand, intertwining her fingers with his own.

With a smile Ash glanced down at their hands

"You do know this is going to be endless jokes for the others right?" She joked although it was true.

T.J. chuckled at the comment "i think we can handle it" he said with a grin before leaning in to kiss her.

* * *

By the time Vanessa got back to her house it was nearly midnight, the stupid tow truck had been a half hour late, it took the guy another hour and a half to get her car back to his shop and jump start the battery, then it was another hour and a half driving home. So at ten minutes to midnight she found herself trudging up the driveway, muttering and cursing under her breath.

"Of all nights to break down" she grumbled, dragging herself up the front steps of the house.

Once inside the house Vanessa found Becky leaning on the counter eating an orange in her pajama's.

"Do. Not. Ask." Vanessa ordered her sister before Becky could say a word.

Becky put down her orange

"Go upstairs and get your dress" she said to Vanessa, grabbing her wrist and pulling her down the hallway.

"Why? The dance is over" Vanessa said confused as she was dragged by her sister up to their room.

"Don't care just do it" Becky ordered and before Vanessa could ask again she was shoved into the bedroom and the door behind her was slammed shut.

Letting out a tired sigh Vanessa grabbed her sparkly green dress from it's hanger in the closet, she almost cried at the sight of it as she was still upset about having missed her prom. But she put it on and grabbed her matching heels from underneath her bed.

"Make sure your hair is nice!" Becky's voice rang from out in the hallway

Rolling her eyes and grumbling to herself Vanessa picked up her brush and fixed her hair which had become a static mess from lying in the backseat of the car. She looked in the mirror and quickly fixed her make-up, which had run down her cheeks when she was crying. Once she decided she was presentable enough, at least by her own standards, she fought back a few more tears and joined Becky in the hallway.

"What is going?" She asked, exhausted and not in the mood to be pranked or made fun of.

Becky simply dragged her down the stairs and to the backdoor of the house

"Go outside" Becky ordered

"What? Why?" Vanessa questioned but she didn't receive an answer.

Looking at her sister skeptically Vanessa cautiously turned the doorknob. She went outside only to see something which she never could've expected.

Their dads tiki torches, which were always brought out during the summer, had been dug out of the garage and lit up around the yard. A few 'Happy Birthday' balloons left over from the girls last birthday were tied to the zip line and the faint sound of music could be heard coming from the living room where Becky had opened the window and blasted a CD at full volume to get the sound out to the yard. Vanessa broke out into laughter at the sight as Mikey, still in his tux from prom, made his way up the back steps.

"What is this?" Vanessa asked through her laughter

"Sorry it's not perfect but we figured that you shouldn't have to miss the prom" Mikey explained, offering Vanessa his hand.

Unable to stop smiling she took it. The two went into the yard and danced for about a minute before the rain started.

"Didn't think it was supposed to rain until tomorrow" Mikey commented but Vanessa only laughed again

"I don't care" she giggled before gently pulling Mikey down her height for a kiss.


	33. Old school

"Hey they are twins" Vince joked the monday after prom when he and Gus found Becky and Vanessa at Vanessa's locker before homeroom.

For once they looked exactly alike, Becky looked pretty much the same as always but Vanessa had gone all out making herself match her sister. Not only were both girls wearing the same outfit but Vanessa had cut her hair to shoulder length, making it a challenge to tell the two apart.

"Vanessa why did you cut your hair?" Gus asked knowing that there had to be an unusual reason behind this, Vanessa hated having short hair.

"Well it's senior prank week and we couldn't think of anything better than switching places so that's we're doing" Vanessa responded as she shut her locker.

"But won't your teachers notice when Becky shows up to class looking like herself?" Vince questioned Vanessa who shrugged

"We could cut my hair, we couldn't make her's grow. Anyway as long as we look the same watching them try to figure out who is who should be funny" she responded but Gus was also skeptical about this plan.

"What about when Becky all of a sudden starts failing her English tests?" He questioned knowing that his girlfriend was an A student in English while Vanessa was barely scraping by with a D.

"Or when Vanessa suddenly understands what she's doing?" Vince added

"Simple. Vanessa can handle every subject except English which luckily i have when she has a study so for that one class we're going to be ourselves" Becky answered confidently, she was never one to go along with Vanessa's schemes but it was senior prank week and people would probably have them figured out by the end of the day so why not?

"Besides all Becky needs to do in my English class is fall asleep and the teacher will be convinced that it's me" Vanessa commented which caused Vince to roll his eyes.

* * *

The week by with some pretty weak pranks. Vanessa and Becky's scheme only lasted the first day while some other pranks included messing with the bell, taking every chair out of Ms. Finster's classroom and letting a box of rabbits loose in the gym. They weren't terrible pranks but they weren't exactly anything that would be remembered and on Thursday morning Principal Prickly decided to point that out.

He was walking through the halls when he passed T.J. Detweiler with a bathroom pass

"One more week T.J." He said casually

"Yes sir" T.J. answered with a chuckle

"Hard to believe you're about to graduate, and that you didn't spend senior prank week putting my desk on the roof" Prickly joked, T.J. tried to hide it when his smile faded and plastered a fake one onto his face.

"Don't want to get in trouble" T.J. said and Prickly nodded

"Well have a good day" the principal finally said before he moved on

"You to" T.J. said back but as he continued on his way he began to think.

What had happened? He used to be the king of pranks and yet he had done nothing all week! Well that was about to change, his class had finally reached their senior year and they were going to go out with a bang.

* * *

Ash was leaving gym class when she found T.J. waiting for her across the hall from the girl's locker room.

"Hey" She said smiling as she walked over to him

"I've got a plan Ash and i need your help" he announced with an evil grin on his face. It was a grin which Ash remembered from their days at Third Street but she hadn't seen it in so long, and it was a welcome sight.

"What kind of plan?" She asked, her smile now matching his.

"Tomorrow is the last day of senior prank week and we are going to pull the biggest prank we've ever pulled" T.J. said to her

"What do you need me to do?" She eagerly asked, the biggest prank they had ever pulled? They had pulled some pretty big pranks, at least the were big by a ten year old's standards.

"Spread the word, every senior needs to be on the football field today after school, this is going to take everyone" T.J. explained, he didn't want to tell Ash just yet but this prank was a gamble. So much had changed and he was worried that they may not make it past stage one but they had to try, they had to have one last prank.

* * *

To say that the meeting on the football field was a mess would be an understatement. Nobody knew what was going on or why they were there, many people were saying that if nothing happened in the next five minutes that they were leaving. So once T.J. had determined that just about everybody was present, he got up on the highest bleacher and stomped his foot loudly.

"Listen up!" He called over the noise of both the crowed and his own banging, slowly people began to quiet down.

"Thank you. Now for those of you who don't know me my name is T.J. Detweiler and it has come to my attention that so far we have done nothing memorable this senior prank week" he began only for the conversations to once again fill the field and so he had to quiet the crowd again.

"Listen! I understand why most of what we've done this week could be surpassed by ten year old, graduation. It's stated very clearly in the school rules that if we get caught, we don't graduate. When we were kids we were never afraid to test out any elaborate scheme which came to our minds because we had nothing to loose, but now we have everything to lose. Which is why i've called you all here. They can't stop us all from graduating, if we all work together then not only will we pull off the biggest prank this school has ever seen, but we'll get away with it" T.J. said, trying to encourage his classmates.

For the first time, the crowed was silent. They were considering this, each and every one of them knew that as a child, they would've enthusiastically partaken in such a plan and so everybody was giving that small voice of childhood in the back of their minds some consideration.

Ash joined T.J. on the bleachers and took his hand inside of her own

"Do you think this is going to work?" She questioned her boyfriend

"I don't know" he answered honestly but then T.J. and Ash found themselves joined by a boy named Jonathan, who had been king of 5th street school during their sixth grade year.

"Just like old times?" He asked T.J. who grinned

"That's the idea" T.J. responded

"HEY!" Jonathan shouted over the crowd, a grin on his face

"T.J.'s right, we've got one day left to be kids and i don't know about you but i want to make the most of it. So i say we listen to T.J.'s plan and give it a shot because he's right, they can't take us all, so what have we got to lose?" Jonathan asked, there were a few more quiet conversations but they slowly died down, everyone was waiting for their orders.

T.J. beamed, stage one complete. He explained the prank and when everyone seemed to agree on it, that was another miracle, the time for instructions came.

"Here's how it's going to work. We have among us the former students of five elementary schools, and among those are the five kings of our sixth grade year. Our kings were chosen because of their leadership, they led us through our final year of elementary school and tonight they are going to lead their followers once again. Would the remaining three kings please join me up here?" T.J. asked, he was the former king of Third Street and Jonathan was already on the bleachers so now all he needed was the other three.

Deciding that now was her time to join the crowd Ash left the bleachers but not before she heard Becky's annoyed comment at T.J. for saying the remaining three kings, when in actuality it was two kings and one queen, Becky had been the ruler of Second Street.

* * *

The prank wasn't meant to be simple and they didn't all stay with their old elementary school very long but rather broke into smaller groups, each with their own tasks. First off there was the challenge of breaking into the school but that was soon solved by Sam and Dave, formally known as the diggers, along with the former diggers of the other elementary schools, digging a tunnel from the back field of the school to the dirt floored basement inside.

"How's it coming Dave?" T.J. asked into his walkie-talkie, according to their schedule the digging should be about done by this time and after not hearing anything for a while T.J. wanted to check in.

"We're done T.J. but we've got a problem" came Dave's response

"What kind of problem?" T.J. questioned

"There's a pipe right through the hole in the floor and we don't have time to dig another hole. We can make this one bigger but then we won't have a wall to lean the ladder against" Dave explained and before T.J. could think of anything Jessica Smith, who happened to be in earshot, took his walkie-talkie from him.

"Dave this is Jess, get everyone whose going to be inside the school in then make the hole bigger, we've got a plan" she said and T.J. looked at her

"How are we going to get the supplies up without the ladder?" He asked but she only smirked, she had a plan.

The rest of the night went as planned. Anyone with a truck was in charge of moving supplies while another group of kids made some calls around town, surprisingly most of those calls went better than expected. Randall was basically forced against his will to stay with the other senior's and was practically being babysat by Vanessa, who back in elementary school had been known as shadow kid and was arguably better than Randall was at discovering what people were up to.

"How do i manage to surprise her?" Mikey questioned Becky as the two of them helped out with the supplies

"Most stuff she notices and just doesn't say anything, otherwise you just get lucky" Becky answered him.

Down in the tunnel Jessica, the former upside-down girl, was hanging upside-down on the pipe across the hole, handing supplies up to the kids in the basement.

"I think all the blood is rushing to my head" she jokingly complained as Vince handed her a book

"Didn't you used to live like this?" He sarcastically asked her

"It's been awhile" she remarked, handing the book up to whoever was in the basement to take it.

"Just hang in there babe" Vince remarked, he and Jessica had been unofficially dating ever since prom and much to his amusement she really hated it when he called her anything but her name.

"You know i really could hurt you from up here" she threatened as she handed him down a history textbook.

"But you won't" he chuckled back as he left the tunnel, Jessica just frowned.

* * *

As usual Principal Prickly and Ms. Finster were the first members of the faculty to arrive at the school at five o'clock in the morning but when they got there something was, off. The school was quiet as usual and maybe it was just their wariness of the final day of senior prank week but they decided to inspect the school. They visited one classroom and looked to each other in confusion, the room looked normal apart from the students desks. They were all the size of elementary school desks and the stack of history textbooks had been replaced by a stack of first grade reading books.

Leaving the classroom to check his office Prickly found a note on his desk.

_Dear Principal Prickly,_

_After our chat yesterday i began to reminisce on the old days back at Third Street and decided to go back for a visit. Today every senior is back at their old elementary schools visiting old teachers, except for Randall Weems because he didn't want to go. Don't worry about the elementary school kids, they will be at the high school today. Us seniors have brought all of their supplies such as desks and books up to the high school as well as transported our desks and books to the elementary schools. Don't worry we will bring everything back to it's correct location tonight but for today we're enjoying our last real day of childhood._

_Sincerely, T.J. Detweiler and the rest of the senior class._

_P.S. Don't try reporting this to the superintendent, he's in on it._


	34. Graduation

"You know you have to come home at some point" Becky lectured Vanessa from the edge of the half pipe. Vanessa had been here at the skatepark since one in the afternoon and it was now nearly eight o'clock but she was still going.

"How many times can you practice the same trick anyway?" Becky questioned but her sister still gave no response.

"Come on Vanessa i can see you getting tired! You're going to drop and tomorrows a big day" Becky continued to nag and finally her sister came to a stop on the ledge.

"Exactly, tomorrow is graduation. At the end of this summer everything is going to change. I'm going into the air force, Gus is going into a different branch of the military, just about everyone is going to separate colleges!" Vanessa began ranting as she took off her helmet, revealing that the top of her head was drenched in sweat.

"Whoa, whoa who are you and what did you do with my overly laid back sister?" Becky sarcastically asked but Vanessa only glared at her.

"Every so often stuff gets to me" Vanessa admitted, knowing that she did not sound like herself.

"Ok but it's still going to happen. We're still graduating this time tomorrow and nobody is ever truly ready but when the moment comes, it'll surprise you how ready you are" Becky advised and Vanessa smiled.

"Where did you learn that?" Vanessa joked causing her sister to laugh

"I made it up but i learned that kind of thinking from you" Becky admitted and she didn't point it out when Vanessa blushed with a smile.

* * *

Joslyn was laying awake in bed, she was too anxious to sleep. It was well past midnight and so obviously she wasn't expecting it when her door creaked opened.

"Joshlyn" Her little cousin's voice called, messing up her name as usual.

"Brandon? What are you doing up?" She asked the little boy as she propped herself up on her elbow. They may live in a two family house but there was a hallway which connected one side to the other and it wasn't uncommon for Brandon to wander over to Joslyn and her mother's side, however it was uncommon for him to do it in the middle of the night.

Instead of answering his cousin's question Brandon just hurried into the room and tried climbing up on her bed. Joslyn sat up to help him and moved over to give him room before laying back down with him.

"Brandon what's wrong?" She asked him in concern, if he had a nightmare wouldn't he go to his parents?

"Mom, mommy says dat you're gonna, you're gonna weave soon" the three year old whimpered as his older cousin adjusted her position some more.

"Oh don't worry, i'm not going until the end of summer and i'm not going far" Joslyn said, trying to calm her cousin. She really wasn't going far, only a city away at the nearest state college.

"But you arew weaving?" Brandon asked, Joslyn kissed the top of his head.

"Yeah but i'll come visit all the time, ok?" She tried to reassure and Brandon sniffled as he nodded, Joslyn could tell that he wasn't ok with it but he was ok enough to save this discussion for another day, a day closer to her leaving.

"Alright, now should i bring you back to bed?" Joslyn asked, she sort of wanted to bring him back but if he wouldn't go then she wouldn't bother, he would only come back and she knew that her aunt wouldn't be too concerned if she noticed Brandon gone, he had come to Joslyn in the middle of the night before.

"Mmm mm" Brandon responded shaking his head no, Joslyn let out a sigh.

"Ok" she said.

* * *

"Well Vince we made it, the last day of school" T.J. commented that morning, emphasizing the word last.

"Yup, hard to believe" Vince commented as they walked through the halls of the school waiting for first period to start.

As they walked the two boys couldn't help but notice that every so often they would spot a broken crayon laying abandoned on the hallway floor left over from Friday's prank.

"It's been a long road Vince my friend but we graduate tonight" T.J. said with a grin, he was in a pretty good mood considering that after tonight school would be over.

Sure there was still college and sure he had heard that would ten times harder than high school but even so they had worked nearly their whole lives to graduate and tonight it was finally happening.

* * *

"What's your deal?" Joslyn questioned Gretchen at lunch as her friend scribbled something in a note book.

"Huh?" Gretchen asked looking up from her writing, she hadn't been paying attention to Joslyn.

"Why are you so stressed?" Joslyn asked

"Seriously i don't know what you're writing but it's graduation day, chill out and enjoy it" Joslyn continued but Gretchen sighed.

"I know it's graduation day, i'm supposed to give a speech tonight and i still don't have a clue as to what i'm going to say" Gretchen complained, folding her arms atop the lunch table resting her head on them in frustration.

Joslyn thought on it for a minute

"Well what have you learned in high school?" Joslyn asked only for Gretchen to look up in confusion.

"Joslyn i was doing eleventh grade work as a ten year old, i haven't learned all that much" Gretchen commented

"No i mean like, as a person. None of us are the same people we were first day of freshman year. We've all changed, you included. So talk about that, i know the whole we've all matured so much thing is kind of cheesy but it works" Joslyn clarified and Gretchen considered this angle before smiling.

"Thanks Joslyn" she said to her friend who grinned.

* * *

"I can't believe we're actually graduating tonight" Gus said to Mikey as the two sat doing nothing in art class.

It seemed that nobody could believe that the day of graduation was finally upon them.

"I know it seems so unreal" Mikey commented, equally amazed that they had actually made it to the end of their school days; aside from college of course.

But still it didn't seem real to anyone and yet it was.

* * *

"So are you graduating?" Joslyn asked Butch during their final study hall.

Despite having gone to prom together the two were still nothing more than friends and each of them liked it that way.

"Yes i am graduating" Butch replied pretending to be annoyed that Joslyn had to ask if he had passed senior year but he knew she was only joking.

"Alright calm down" Joslyn giggled as a sly grin made it's way to Butch's face.

"Are you finally going to talk to your friend Nate tonight?" Butch inquired

"You know this study hall is one part of high school i will not miss" Joslyn commented but Butch only snickered at the comment.

"We've had some fun" he laughed causing Joslyn to roll her eyes.

"No you've had some fun. I've spent every day watching the clock" she explained which only made Butch laugh even harder.

"Fine i've basically tortured you all year but still you know i'm right" he teased

"I know" Joslyn muttered

"So do something about it" Butch encouraged, all laughter suddenly gone from his voice.

"I will" Joslyn blurted out

"I will" she repeated and she would, she didn't know exactly what she would do but she would do something before it was too late.

* * *

The assembly took place that night under the lights of the football field. T.J. and Ash were walking around and talking to friends like everyone else before they would have to take their seats. The couple was holding hands which was still earning a few jokes from some of their close friends but they didn't mind, and after all this time they definitely deserved some of those jokes.

Joslyn was standing alone in the crowd, she was avoiding both Butch and Nate. So she was looking around for anyone else she knew when she saw a face on the bleachers. Shaking her head she blinked but he was still there.

Her dad was still there.

At first she thought she was going crazy but the man she saw making his way towards the bleachers was real, and he was without a doubt her father.

"Everyone please take your seats" came Principal Prickly's voice over the loud speaker. It took about ten minutes and a few other announcements but eventually everyone was seated and everyone was quiet.

Taking the stage Principal Prickly cleared his throat

"Thank you everyone. It is my honor to stand here today and present to you the class of 2006. They have worked hard to be here today and i am proud of each and every one of them, even the ones who were responsible for Friday's senior prank" Prickly began which earned a chuckle from everyone, just about everybody in town knew about the prank.

"I've known many of these kids since there days as elementary school children and so to have been appointed principal of the high school during the senior year of many of my former students it was a joy see just how much each of them had grown. Now i am going to stop talking and welcome the president of the senior class, miss Gretchen Grundler" Prickly finished.

Applause was heard throughout the crowd as Gretchen nervously took the stage, she had finally worked out her speech but was still very unsure on if it were good enough or not.

"Thank you Principal Prickly" Gretchen began

"Fellow classmates, standing before you today i see the faces of friends old and new. Not a single one of us sitting here today is the same person they were walking into the school as a freshman, we have all grown. People always say that we are never going to need anything we learn in school in the real world but i find that is the biggest lie anyone could ever tell us. School has taught us more than geometry and science, it has taught us how to care. Without school some of us may have never met, some of us may never have learned what it's like to take a real chance, or how to open a closed spirit. We may never have known how it feels to break only for a friend to help pick up the pieces and some of us may never have truly experience freedom. We've all been through so much in our lives and without school we may never have met any of the good people who we have shared many of our most important moments with" with that Gretchen finished her speech and amongst the applause she took her seat once again.

There were a few more speeches from both teachers and students alike but finally, when the assembly felt as thought it had been going on forever, Prickly began calling students for their diplomas.

"Mikey Blumberg" Prickly called and with a grin on his face Mikey went and collected his diploma.

"Theodor Jasper Detweiler" T.J. went up to the stage with a grin, he wished they could've just called T.J. but he wasn't going to make a big deal out of that.

"Good job T.J." Prickly said as he shook hands with the teen who smiled

"Thanks sir" T.J. replied before he left the stage.

"Gustave Griswald" Gus went up to collect his diploma, and nearly tripped on the second step of the stage.

"Gretchen Grundler" Gretchen almost couldn't believe it, after so many years of preparing for this moment it was finally here.

"Vince LaSalle" Like for the rest of the players the entire basket ball team cheered extra loudly when Vince's name was called.

"Ashley Spinelli" Ash went up to the stage with a smile on her face and tried to ignore the fact that she could hear her mother in the crowd.

After every name had been called Prickly took the microphone once again.

"Ladies and gentlemen, it is my honor to present to you the graduates of the class of 2006" and with that cheers erupted all over the field.

The graduates threw their caps in the air and celebrated. Everyone was cheering and clapping, happy that after so long they had finally graduated.

T.J. picked up Ash and spun her around, both of them laughing.

Mikey was running around the field with Vanessa on his back, Gus and Becky did the same only they opted for walking around the celebration.

Then Joslyn and Nate came face to face. By this time both of them knew that they wanted to do something but neither knew how and so swallowing her fear Joslyn placed her hands on Nate's shoulder's and kissed him.

Initially Nate was shocked by this and pulled away but he only gave Joslyn half a second to process that before he pulled her back into him and kissed her again.

There were many pictures taken that night of the friends. Vanessa and Becky, Ash and Menlo and of course boyfriends and girlfriends posed together in their pictures. But as the celebration was breaking up and people began to leave Ash asked her mom to take one last picture.

T.J. stood with one are around Ash's waist and the other around Vince's shoulder's. Ash placed one hand on T.J.'s far shoulder and the other on Mikey's back. Mikey, making a joke that the height difference between him and Ash was more than a foot, he rested his hand atop of her head. Gretchen stood on the end next to Vince and Gus on the other end next to Mikey. A lot may have changed over the years but somehow these six friends were still connected in one way or another, and so before they all went their separate ways they decided to get one last picture of the recess gang.

* * *

**Ok i know that this is a little late but i just want to say thank you to everyone for reading and for all of the great reviews! I really wasn't sure how many chapters this was going to last for but i'm glad to see it went as well as it did. Also i feel like i owe everyone an apology for the confusion with Spinelli's name being changed to Ash for the last couple chapters. As i'm sure many of you noticed there were a few chapters in the senior year which dealt with her becoming a little more girly and leaving most of her tomboy personality behind. I personally feel that the reason she ever went by Spinelli in the first place was because she was a tomboy and wanted to be seen as tough instead of being one of the Ashley's. So i chose to have her start going by Ash because i felt it represented the girly side of her as well as the tomboy side. I realize that i did not handle this as well as i could have and was informed that it ruined the story for some people. Again i apologize for that and i would like to thank everyone for reading, this is my longest story to date and it means so much to me that so many people liked it!**


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